A European company aims to send a spacecraft to the Moon in 2018.

The private company PTScientists is building two probes and plans to launch them to the Moon next year on billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Video introducing the product by the PTScientists team.

In the race to become the first private entity to land on the Moon, European company PTScientists has built a landing module and two rovers, which are expected to be launched on billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in 2018, according to the Telegraph.

The landing module was programmed to land in the Taurus-Littrow Valley. The probe would search for the Apollo 17 mission rover, left behind in 1971 by astronaut Gene Cernan, the last person to land on the Moon. They wanted to check its current condition.

PTScientists announced a partnership with Vodafone to provide communication between the probe and Earth for this mission.

"This is a crucial first step toward sustainable exploration of the Solar System. For humanity to leave its cradle on Earth, we need to develop our own extraterrestrial infrastructure. With this mission, we will establish and test the first components of a dedicated communication network on the Moon," said Robert Boehme, CEO of PTScientists.

PTScientists have been developing the automated landing vehicle (ALINA) and two rovers for 10 years. The solar-powered rovers, developed by Audi, are capable of traveling on the Moon at a speed of 3.6 km/h. Each rover is equipped with two stereoscopic cameras capable of capturing 3D images, along with a third camera for video recording and panoramic photography.

A model of the lunar rover from PTScientist. Photo: Audi.

ALINA also brought along scientific experiments from researchers in the United States, Canada, and Sweden.

"We will collect a lot of scientific data on the Moon. High-speed communication allows the rovers to communicate with ALINA to send valuable data back to Earth," said Karsten Becker, the rover's operator.

The PTScientists team faces fierce competition from four other companies for Google's Lunar XPrize, a $30 million prize awarded to the first private team to land a probe on the Moon and then send video and images back to Earth.

TeamIndus, a competitor of PTScientists

According to VNE