Google Lunar X prize: India's moonshot at the space race

Indian startup Team Indus is one of just 16 remaining teams racing to the moon for a $20m prize

Sometime in late 2017, a tiny vehicle will blast into space from India on a 10-day journey to the moon.

As it finally lands on the lunar surface some 238,900 miles later, its fate will rest entirely on four small aluminium parts in its shock absorbers. They need to work in a vacuum, with lubrication that doesn't freeze or jam no matter what the angle. And if they fail, there's no one to go up and fix it - meaning that eight years of work and $20m (13.2m) in prize money will be lost in space.