Archive · 14 Aug 2026
TeamIndus's Moonshot: An Indian Startup's Race for the Lunar Prize
Rahul Narayan loved space stories when he was a child.
When he grew up, he found out about a big contest called the Google Lunar X Prize.
The winner would get 20 million dollars for landing a robot on the Moon.
No team from India had signed up, so Rahul and his friends made their own team, TeamIndus.
They paid 50,000 dollars to enter the race.
About 100 people, including retired scientists, joined them.
They built a small rover named Ek Choti Si Asha and won a one million dollar award for their progress.
But landing on the Moon is very hard, and the contest ended before anyone could finish.
The prize was never given to anyone.
Even though they did not win, the book says their try was not wasted.
Rahul Narayan founded TeamIndus after learning no Indian team had registered for the Google Lunar X Prize, a $20 million competition to land a rover on the Moon.
TeamIndus pooled savings to pay the $50,000 entry fee and later moved to Bengaluru, attracting about 100 engineers and scientists, including retired ISRO personnel.
The team built a rover prototype named Ek Choti Si Asha and won $1 million in the interim Terrestrial Milestone Prize.
TeamIndus shared its lander space with Japan's Hakuto team, but none of the five remaining teams could launch a mission by the final deadline of end March 2018.
The GLXP was closed with the prize money unclaimed and no winner, though the book argues the attempt was not in vain.
An aerospace parts firm offered facilities for free and another supplied launch components without billing TeamIndus.
- Who
- Rahul Narayan and TeamIndus, a private Indian team of roughly 100 engineers and scientists, including retired ISRO personnel.
- What
- TeamIndus entered the Google Lunar X Prize race to land a rover on the Moon, travel 500 metres and send high-definition videos to Earth; the competition ended without a winner.
- When
- The team registered just before the entry deadline and competed until the competition's final deadline at the end of March 2018.
- Where
- Bengaluru, India, where the team was based; the target mission was the Moon and the race was global.
- Why
- To pursue a childhood dream of space exploration and because no Indian team had registered for the prize competition.
- Competition
- Google Lunar X Prize (GLXP)
- Prize
- $20 million
- Registration fee
- $50,000
- Rover prototype
- Ek Choti Si Asha
- Interim prize won
- $1 million (Terrestrial Milestone Prize)
- Lab2Moon responses
- 3,000 from around the world
- Final deadline
- End of March 2018
- Outcome
- Competition closed, prize money unclaimed, no winner