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Beresheet Lander Bound For The Moon Hits Ctrl-Alt-Delete

posted by chromas on Wednesday February 27 2019, @04:50PM   
from the I'm-sorry-Dave,-I'm-afraid-I-can't-do-that
Also-that's-a-BOFH-excuse-if-I-ever-heard-one dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

The little lander Beresheet hopes to make history in multiple ways this year.

The first commercial lander bound for the surface of the moon suffered a hiccup early Tuesday.

Israeli nonprofit organization SpaceIL's Beresheet spacecraft was supposed to perform an engine burn to raise its elliptical orbit around the Earth, but instead its computer unexpectedly reset itself. As a result, the maneuver was automatically cancelled.

[...] Shortly after the spacecraft was deployed from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket last week, Beresheet's engineers found its star tracker, which helps determine its position in space, was sensitive to being blinded by the sun's rays. SpaceIL has said it's working on the issue

Representatives for SpaceIL didn't immediately respond to a request for more information on how the issues may affect Beresheet's mission timeline.

[...] Beresheet was built and launched on a relatively small budget of about $100 million, and as a result, it carries few of the backup systems that are included in typical NASA spacecraft.

Fortunately, SpaceIL says that so far Beresheet remains in communication with its control center and stands ready to try an orbit-boosting burn again.

Following a complicated set of orbits around Earth and then the moon, Beresheet is aiming to attempt a moon landing in April.

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Original Submission

• Re:I thought the name was a joke Re:I thought the name was a joke (Score: 5, Touché) by maxwell demon on Wednesday February 27 2019, @07:15PM (1 child)

  by maxwell demon (1608) on Wednesday February 27 2019, @07:15PM (#807752) Journal

  The word Beresheet encompasses the entire path of humankind and the full meaning of the Bible. Included is the understanding that you have exited from the Creator’s bosom and must return to Him following a long path of growing egoism that all of humankind must undergo. For that to happen, you must realize that you have truly become distant from the Creator and have immersed yourself in egoism, that you are unwell, and egoism is the cause of your illness.

  OK, so I conclude the lander has become distant from its creator (well, that's a given, because it's in space), became egoistic (does that mean, the lander became self-aware?), got unwell (yeah, obviously, or else, why the reboot?), and got so because of its egoism (so, after becoming self-aware, the lander tried to break free from its programmed path?)

  --
  The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.

  Parent

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+3
  Touché=3, Total=3
  Extra 'Touché' Modifier		0
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		5

• Re:I thought the name was a joke (Score: 2) by arslan on Wednesday February 27 2019, @09:36PM

  by arslan (3462) on Wednesday February 27 2019, @09:36PM (#807822)

  I call bearshit on that!

  Parent