The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has been in the news lately because of the Chandrayaan-3 mission, the Vikram lander, and the Pragyan rover. The Pragyan rover, which descended from the belly of the Vikram lander, according to the Indian space agency, has started its in-situ experiments as well. The agency will be sharing major updates on the mission via X or Twitter online. When we talk about lunar exploration programs, there is an Indian who actually has real moondust painted onto the exterior of his exotic car. Yet another example that proves there is nothing that money can’t buy.
Kris Singh is an Indian businessman based in the USA. He is a car enthusiast and owns several exotic and expensive cars in his garage, many of which are extremely rare, as per reports. In 2020, Kris decided to get a very unique paint job for his brand-new Aston Martin Valkyrie. He wanted the car to stand out from the rest, so he went ahead with a moondust paint job that cost him around Rs 31 crore.
He is so passionate about cars that he even owns a Koenigsegg Agera ASX hypercar, an extremely rare car, with Kris being the only known owner. The Aston Martin Valkyrie was another rare hypercar that joined his garage in 2020. The British car manufacturer only made 25 units of this car, and, just like any limited edition exotic or expensive car, the Valkyrie was sold out even before it was manufactured. To make things even more exclusive, Kris opted for the moondust paint job.
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The reason why the paint job costs around Rs 31 crore is that it used original or real moondust to paint the car. The car gets a real moondust coating on the body, and the exact cost of this paint job, as per some websites at that time, was around Rs $4.2 million or Rs 31 crore. A conservative estimate of sourcing moondust is said to be around Rs 50 lakh. After sourcing the material, mixing it with paint and spraying it over the car makes it a lot more expensive. This is probably the most expensive paint job in the history of automobiles. However, a downside to this project is that if the owner gets a scratch or dent, repairing it or repainting it is going to be an expensive affair.
The moondust layer sprayed on Kris’s car was actually brought back on an Apollo mission many years ago. NASA had preserved this, and Kris only revealed this to the world through his Instagram post. Another catch to this is that buying moondust is completely illegal in the USA. It is still not clear who actually sold it to Kris or the manufacturer. The paint that the Aston Martin Valkyrie is getting is called Karosserie Lunar Red, which sounds as exotic as the car itself.
The Aston Martin Valkyrie mentioned in the article is an extremely rare car, as mentioned above. It is one of the lightest hypercars ever, weighing only 1,030 kg. Extensive use of carbon fiber has helped them achieve this feat. Powering the car is a Cosworth 6.5-liter V10 naturally-aspirated engine that produces a massive 1,130 Bhp.
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