India will launch two moon missions in 2018. Here are the details

India is going to witness launch of two lunar missions in 2018. The two moon missions will be launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) and Team Indus, respectively.

ISRO will launch the Chandrayaan-2 mission, which will be an advanced version of its previous 2018 mission with the objective of deeper lunar surface probe. Whereas, the moon mission launched by Team Indus will unfurl the Indian National Flag on the moon's surface as part of a global lunar competition.

Team Indus, which has many young engineers and is led by IIT-Delhi alumnus Rahul Narayan, will compete to win $30 million Google Lunar XPRIZE. The competition states the competing team has to move 500 metre on the moon's surface and should be able to beam back high-definition images back to Earth.

To fulfil its ambition, Team Indus has roped in investors like Infosys co-founder and former UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani and space experts such as former Isro chairman K Kasturirangan and many experienced old hands from the Indian space agency.

Praising the aerospace startup, Nilekani told TOI, "Team Indus is pursuing a big hairy audacious goal. I invested in Team Indus as I believe in their audacious mission to reach and land on the moon."