Italian team placed first in TeamIndus Lab2Moon competition

Naples-based Team Space4Life has come first in the Lab2Moon competition organised by TeamIndus for selecting experiments to fly aboard its spacecraft being launched for the Moon later this year.

Team Space4Life proposed an experiment to test the effectiveness of using a colony of Cyanobacteria as a shield against harmful radiation in space.

The Italian team will now work closely with TeamIndus engineers to make the experiment space worthy for the journey of a lifetime aboard the TeamIndus spacecraft launching for the Moon later this year, the Bengaluru-based company said in a statement on Wednesday.

A team from India which proposed an experiment to explore photosynthesis on the Moon, was shortlisted to fly along with Team Space4Life to the Moon as the second placed team.

Launched last year, Lab2Moon, a global challenge for youth, had inspired more than 3,000 teams to send in ideas for experiments.

The finalists included experiments examining the widest range of problems while seeking to enhance human understanding of what it takes to become a sustainable multi planetary species.

TeamIndus is the only Indian team competing for the Google Lunar XPrize. For demonstrating its landing technology, TeamIndus has already won a $1 million milestone prize.

The goal of the $30 million Google Lunar XPRIZE is to ignite a new era of space exploration by lowering the cost and inspiring the imagination of the next generation.

--IANS

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