SpaceIL, an Israeli nonprofit organization, is dedicated to landing the first Israeli spacecraft on the Moon. Beresheet was their first attempt at meeting this goal. While the spacecraft did land, it first touched the surface about 1000 meters per second faster than intended. The mishap occurred late in the descent profile when the main engine failed—resulting in a very low-angle (<10°), high-speed impact.
The Beresheet impact occurred on 11 April 2019 and LRO passed overhead 11 days later, allowing LROC to acquire a six-image (three NAC left-right pairs) sequence of the search area. The coordinates of the darkest pixel (lowest reflectance) of the central "smudge" are 32.5956°N, 19.3496°E, with a 20-m (latitude) by 8-m (longitude) 95% confidence interval, estimated from seven images acquired before the impact event (over the course of the LRO mission). The elevation is ~2613 meters, and although the uncertainty is not well constrained at this time, it is likely less than 10 meters.
What really happened is they encountered this.
(Score: 5, Touché) by bob_super on Friday May 17 2019, @01:03AM (3 children)
> While the spacecraft did land, it first touched the surface about 1000 meters per second faster than intended.
"land" and "touch" don't quite reflect how spectacular this would have looked to a local observer:
That's equivalent to a Mach-3 crash, OR about 40% of the local escape velocity.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 17 2019, @01:20AM
Or Moon Mach ~0.0000000000000001.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Saturday May 18 2019, @10:01PM
>"land" and "touch" don't quite reflect how spectacular this would have looked
modded touche'
fuck meta
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(Score: 2) by Bot on Saturday May 18 2019, @10:26PM
Very spectacular.
xit and xut were sipping their silicate gel when all of a sudden
*thud*
- fuck, another probe!
- earthlings dammit! we're not made of cheese! har har har
- har har har hey, looks flimsy to be a probe...
- and look at these signs, new guys...
- hmmm let's ID them with the earth network... Israeli... this ship was called beresheet
- oh, so now they will be crying 'oh beresheeeet!' har har har
- har har har.... but.... what if it landed on the house.
Moral of the story: Israel, the chosen ones (when it comes to troublemaking)
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