TeamIndus’ all-terrain rover. Photo: TeamIndus.

TeamIndus has chosen Thales Alenia Space to provide the integrated S-band transponder on board its Lunar Landing Spacecraft system to transmit video and images from the rover.

TeamIndus, an aerospace startup based in India, is one of five finalists in the Google Lunar XPRIZE competition. The company is building a spacecraft to land on the Moon in early 2018, which will deploy a rover that will travel at least 500 meters and transmit High-Definition (HD) video and images back to Earth. According to Rahul Narayan, fleet commander of TeamIndus, the company designed its spacecraft to deliver up to a 20kg payload to the Moon’s surface.

Teams participating in the XPRIZE competition — which includes SpaceIL of Israel, Moon Express of the United States, Hakuto of Japan, and the international Synergy Moon — must complete their Moon missions before the end of 2017. The first team to do so will win a grand prize of $20 million, with a $5 million reward for second place.