Designing lunar orbits to efficiently land on the Moon — The TeamIndus spacecraft will soft-land on the Moon in 2020. The landing site for this first mission (Z-01) is near Annegrit crater, in the vast lava plains of Mare Imbrium. The location of the landing site poses multiple constraints on how the spacecraft orbits are designed, including the launch/landing time…

With great science comes great engineering — Gravity assists are a powerful technique which can help both extend the duration of a space mission and reduce its overall cost. This article will have a look at some of the most insane gravity assist techniques used in past space missions. …

A look at the propulsion system of the TeamIndus lunar lander — The TeamIndus spacecraft will soft-land on the Moon in 2020. We have designed a robust and unique propulsion system capable of landing a craft on the Moon and operate in different modes meeting the needs of each phase of the mission. …

How the giant leap for mankind is not the first step on the Moon but attaining Earth orbit — The Universe is governed by the laws of physics that cannot be changed by us. As such, there are hard limits to what we can do with rockets and how we build them. The working of rockets is governed by the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation, named after the rocket scientist Konstantin…

An experiment to enable living habitats on the Moon — Going onboard the TeamIndus spacecraft in 2019 is the Lab2Moon experiment LunaDome. It aims to recreate the Earth’s atmosphere in a small inflatable dome on the lunar surface. In the absence of air on the Moon, any long term human presence on the surface would require some sort of a…

A look at multi-layer insulation and how we use it — Out there in the harsh environment of space, spacecraft must deal with extreme hot and cold temperatures. The spacecraft need not just survive the extreme temperatures but also function in such harsh environments throughout the mission. Difficulties of managing heat in space Spacecraft can experience temperatures in space that are either too hot or too cold…

Democratizing access to Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and beyond. — February 2018 saw the successful launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, making it the most powerful rocket in operation. It is capable of launching more than 2x the payload to Low-Earth Orbit than the next best which is ULA’s Delta IV Heavy. Here are some numbers to give you an idea…

Six space missions that reminded us space exploration is hard — November of 2011 was a particularly exciting time for planetary scientists. Russia had launched its Phobos-Grunt spacecraft designed to land on Phobos, the first ever attempt on the largest Martian moon. What was even more exciting is that the spacecraft was going to return ~200 g sample from Phobos’ surface…

A look at the components that help the spacecraft compute — TeamIndus’ first spacecraft will soft-land on the Moon in 2020, one of the first attempts by any private entity. Having published an overview of the spacecraft components before, let us take a look at the sensors and control systems onboard the lander. #1: Integrated Avionics Unit (IAU) All the major subsystems (thermal, propulsion, power, etc.)…