Israeli Moon Mission

[lpetrich]

It is the Beresheet spacecraft. Its name is "In the Beginning" in Hebrew, the first word of the Bible. It is a rather small spacecraft, being 1.5 m high and 2 m across, and weiging 150 kg empty and 585 kg fueled. It carries a magnetometer for measuring the Moon's magnetic field and a retroreflector for finding the distance to the Moon by laser ranging. The Moon has remanent or frozen magnetism in its rocks, a leftover from the geological activity of its early history.

It was successfully launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket on February 22, along with some satellites, and it is currently making its way to the Moon. It will land on Mare Serenitatis on April 11.

It was built by  SpaceIL, a privately-funded nonprofit organization, and it was to compete in the now-defunct  Google Lunar X Prize.

Beresheet | The Planetary Society
Beresheet (SpaceIL Lunar Lander) - Gunter's Space Page
Israel launches Beresheet moon mission with privately funded spacecraft - CNN
Israel’s moon-bound spaceship Beresheet successfully completes first maneuver - Israel News - Haaretz.com "Beresheet is expected to land on the moon on April 11 and would be the smallest vehicle ever to accomplish that "
Israeli spacecraft launches, Beresheet heads into orbit towards the moon - Israel News - Jerusalem Post
Israeli lunar craft successfully completes first maneuver | The Times of Israel "Team behind private Beresheet venture says engine activated at distance of 69,400 kilometers from earth"

 

[Sarpedon]

Non-fatal software glitch causes manuever to be cancelled

There was a software glitch that caused a planned orbital manuver to be cancelled. This is not expected to prevent the planned landing.

 

[Shake]

Non-fatal software glitch causes manuever to be cancelled

There was a software glitch that caused a planned orbital manuver to be cancelled. This is not expected to prevent the planned landing.

I'd heard there'd been a glitch, but hadn't seen whether or not it would affect the landing. Good to know that it won't (or at least, shouldn't).

 

[Sarpedon]

Good news! It's back on track.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/following-setback-beresheet-spacecraft-completes-successful-maneuver/

 

[lpetrich]

Maneuver puts SpaceIL lander on course for the moon - SpaceNews.com

SpaceIL’s lunar lander performed a maneuver March 19 that puts the privately developed lander on course to enter orbit around the moon next month.

SpaceIL said its Beresheet lander performed a one-minute burn of its main thruster at 8:30 a.m. Eastern, extending the apogee of its orbit around the earth to 405,000 kilometers. The spacecraft is “functioning as expected,” the organization said in a statement.

The spacecraft will likely perform some correction burns, but nothing major before arriving at the Moon and going into orbit around it. Which it should do on April 4, followed by landing on April 11.

 

[Sarpedon]

Spacecraft successfully transitions to Moon Orbit.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/beres...fully-completes-maneuver-for-capture-by-moon/

 

[Gun Nut]

There is little-to-no scientific value in landing on the moon, I have heard said.. it is all political. So, why did they spend $100 million to do it?

 

[skepticalbip]

There is little-to-no scientific value in landing on the moon, I have heard said.. it is all political. So, why did they spend $100 million to do it?

There were a lot of reasons, science being only one (and likely one of the lesser reasons). Leading the reasons would be cold war one upmanship. Another, and maybe even more driving cause is the same reason that countries like Dubai built the Burj Khalifa, a 2700 ft. tall (over a half mile high) building.

But you missed the cost by a bit.

https://christopherrcooper.com/blog/apollo-program-cost-return-investment/

Apollo Program cost roughly $25.4 billion, unadjusted. That makes the total Apollo Program cost $163 billion inflation adjusted to 2008. That’s our total cost to go to the moon.

 

[Sarpedon]

Aaaaaaand it crashed.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-beresheet-spacecraft-crashes-during-moon-landing-attempt/

What a shame!

 

[bilby]

There is little-to-no scientific value in landing on the moon, I have heard said.. it is all political. So, why did they spend $100 million to do it?

Because by political standards, that's a big political gain for the amount of money. And it's not like it's their own money - it doesn't come out of the pockets of the decision makers.

You answered your own question.

 

[steve_bank]

If at first you do not succeed try and try again.

 

[Sarpedon]

That's what Bibi said.

 

[Gun Nut]

There is little-to-no scientific value in landing on the moon, I have heard said.. it is all political. So, why did they spend $100 million to do it?

There were a lot of reasons, science being only one (and likely one of the lesser reasons). Leading the reasons would be cold war one upmanship. Another, and maybe even more driving cause is the same reason that countries like Dubai built the Burj Khalifa, a 2700 ft. tall (over a half mile high) building.

But you missed the cost by a bit.

https://christopherrcooper.com/blog/apollo-program-cost-return-investment/

Apollo Program cost roughly $25.4 billion, unadjusted. That makes the total Apollo Program cost $163 billion inflation adjusted to 2008. That’s our total cost to go to the moon.

The spacecraft was budgeted at $100 million (NIS 370 million), a fraction of the cost of vehicles launched to the moon by major powers US, Russia and China in the past. It was a joint venture between private companies SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries, funded almost entirely by private donations from well-known Jewish philanthropists, including South African billionaire Morris Kahn, Miriam and Sheldon Adelson, Lynn Schusterman, and others.

$100M.. "On a shoestring budget".

 

[skepticalbip]

There were a lot of reasons, science being only one (and likely one of the lesser reasons). Leading the reasons would be cold war one upmanship. Another, and maybe even more driving cause is the same reason that countries like Dubai built the Burj Khalifa, a 2700 ft. tall (over a half mile high) building.

But you missed the cost by a bit.

The spacecraft was budgeted at $100 million (NIS 370 million), a fraction of the cost of vehicles launched to the moon by major powers US, Russia and China in the past. It was a joint venture between private companies SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries, funded almost entirely by private donations from well-known Jewish philanthropists, including South African billionaire Morris Kahn, Miriam and Sheldon Adelson, Lynn Schusterman, and others.

$100M.. "On a shoestring budget".

Sorry, my mistake. For some strange reason I had assumed that you were asking why the U.S. landed people on the Moon. That was the reason for my mentioning cold war one-upmanship.

 

[Sarpedon]

well, some might say Israel is also involved in a Cold War.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

There were a lot of reasons, science being only one (and likely one of the lesser reasons). Leading the reasons would be cold war one upmanship. Another, and maybe even more driving cause is the same reason that countries like Dubai built the Burj Khalifa, a 2700 ft. tall (over a half mile high) building.

But you missed the cost by a bit.

The spacecraft was budgeted at $100 million (NIS 370 million), a fraction of the cost of vehicles launched to the moon by major powers US, Russia and China in the past. It was a joint venture between private companies SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries, funded almost entirely by private donations from well-known Jewish philanthropists, including South African billionaire Morris Kahn, Miriam and Sheldon Adelson, Lynn Schusterman, and others.

$100M.. "On a shoestring budget".

For a deep space mission, $100M is a shoestring budget.

And it's obvious what happened to it. I'm sure you've seen one of the many photo collections of the girls of the IDF. Well, the probe got mooned and was stunned at the sight and neglected to fire it's engine!

 

[steve_bank]

Most of the development work is done.

There are harkened computers available for space apps. I 3expect most of the electronics and mechanic are off the shelf.

Skip some of the NASA type qualification tests.

In the 80s COTS became acceptable in NASA and the military. Commercial off the shelf equipment. Use what exists if it works in the environment. Skip the usual expensive decimation and testing.

 

[Sarpedon]

Here is a follow up article:
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/D...thousands-of-water-bears-onto-the-Moon-597849

Apparently, the lander had a small capsule containing tardigrades (so called "water bears") the remarkably resilient tiny animal. The goal was to send them up and see if they could be revived by future astronauts years, or even decades in the future. The big question is whether the capsule survived the crash, and whether the tardigrades have been set loose on the lunar surface. Of course, there's little chance of the critters being revived and living their lives on the moon, but it does raise questions about biological contamination of other planetary bodies. I thought that NASA took precautions to prevent this, it is frankly a little disturbing that other countries seem to have a more gung-ho attitude towards it.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Here is a follow up article:
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/D...thousands-of-water-bears-onto-the-Moon-597849

Apparently, the lander had a small capsule containing tardigrades (so called "water bears") the remarkably resilient tiny animal. The goal was to send them up and see if they could be revived by future astronauts years, or even decades in the future. The big question is whether the capsule survived the crash, and whether the tardigrades have been set loose on the lunar surface. Of course, there's little chance of the critters being revived and living their lives on the moon, but it does raise questions about biological contamination of other planetary bodies. I thought that NASA took precautions to prevent this, it is frankly a little disturbing that other countries seem to have a more gung-ho attitude towards it.

I don't think NASA cares about keeping life off the moon. It's the worlds that just might possibly be life-bearing they care about not contaminating.

 

[Sarpedon]

I understand the Moon is not the issue. If you read the article I linked, it speculated on future missions that might take water bears 'beyond' the moon. Israel has decided not to redo its failed moon mission, and aspire to fail at something greater. Lpetrich's list of moon failures in the other thread is full of failures, and wiki's list of failed Mars missions is also quite long. I would be pissed if someone sent waterbears to Mars, because there's actually some evidence that there is flowing water there every once in a while.