Samujjal Purkayastha is the founder of Astromanity. Having done his schooling in India, he received a full scholarship to Tufts University where he will be pursuing a double major in Mechanical Engineering with specialization in Aerospace and Astrophysics. As a kid Samujjal was always fascinated with the universe. This fascination and a never say die attitude along with a passion for Aerospace inspired this eighteen year old from a middle class family to establish Astromanity with the motto “Space for Humanity and Humanity for Space”. In his own words “when I came to hear about the Google Lunar X Prize, I was ecstatic; somewhere I knew that I needed to do something. I do honor the teams that have assembled to take part in this challenge; but at the same time I feel that they are more interested about the commercial aspect. I am not sure if they are as passionate about space exploration as a teenager who has grown up idolizing Neil Armstrong and Kalpana Chawla is; but who never had the resource to transform his passion into his activity”

With Astromanity, Samujjal hopes to bring together people like him who lack the funds and resources but not the passion for space exploration or the determination to succeed.