On February 18th, Israeli firm SpaceIL is ready to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida what will become
the first privately funded mission to launch from Earth and land on the moon, and the first spacecraft to propel itself over the lunar surface after landing by "hopping" on its rocket engine to a second landing spot. The mission marks yet another milestone, not only in the history and technical arc of space exploration, but also in how humankind goes about space exploration.
The lander for the mission, dubbed 'Beresheet' which stands for "In the beginning", is
... about the size and shape of a family dinner table, roughly 6 feet in diameter and 4 feet high, weighing (on Earth) about 350 pounds.
The article neglects to mention that a single layer of approximately 462 of the landers would fit within the confines of an Ice Hockey rink.
Carrying instrumentation to measure the magnetic field of the moon, a laser-reflector provided by NASA and a time-capsule of cultural and historical Israeli artifacts, the mission will ride into space as a secondary payload — like a rideshare passenger — aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
The primary payload is a communications satellite bound for geostationary orbit (less than 1/10 of the way to the moon). Once dropped off at geostationary orbit by the Falcon 9,
with a small amount of additional energy from its own propulsion system, Beresheet can boost its own orbit by positioning itself so that it's captured by the moon's gravitational pull. This process will take several weeks.
Once landed on the moon, however, the mission may only last a few more days. The lander is not designed for the long haul, but instead will demonstrate advances in technology as well as the business model for a privately funded spacecraft landing on another body in the solar system.
It is always possibile that future moon hikers will come across the lander's various landing spots on the lunar surface. No doubt future moon park rangers will inform them that Beresheet's hop locations can be identified by deposits the lander made which contain small bells and smell like pepper.
Related Stories
Watch the historic first private mission to the Moon launch Thursday night
For the first time later this week, a privately developed moon lander will launch aboard a privately built rocket, organized by a private launch coordinator. It’s an historic moment in space and the Israeli mission stands to make history again if it touches down on the Moon’s surface as planned on April 11.
The Beresheet (“Genesis”) program was originally conceived as an entry into the ambitious but ultimately unsuccessful Google Lunar Xprize in 2010, which challenged people to accomplish a lunar landing, with $30 million in prizes as the incentive. The prize closed last year with no winner, but as these Xprize competitions aim to do, it had already spurred great interest and investment in a private moon mission.
SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries worked together on the mission, which will bring cameras, a magnetometer and a capsule filled with items from the country to, hopefully, a safe rest on the lunar surface.
[...] Russia, China and of course the U.S. are the only ones ever to successfully land on the Moon; China’s Chang’e 4 lander was the first to soft-land (as opposed to impact) the “dark” (though really only far — it’s often light) side and is currently functional.
[...] Seattle’s Spaceflight coordinated the launch, and technically Beresheet is the secondary payload; the primary is the Air Force Research Labs’ S5 experimental satellite, which the launch vehicle will take to geosynchronous orbit after the lunar module detaches.
There is a video on YouTube showing the steps planned to take the craft from Earth orbit to Moon orbit and, hopefully eventually, to the Moon's surface.
You can watch it live-streamed on YouTube starting about 20 minutes before launch:
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 04 2019, @06:33PM (1 child)
nah; they'd have shown up in the well-known documentary series Futurama. wake me up when the whalers arrive.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Tuesday February 05 2019, @03:09AM
Does a Beresheet on the moon?
(Score: 4, Funny) by gawdonblue on Monday February 04 2019, @06:36PM (2 children)
...settlements
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Monday February 04 2019, @10:46PM (1 child)
Too soon, too soon...
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 04 2019, @11:56PM
Moonbase Alpha... The dumping ground for nuclear waste.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Monday February 04 2019, @06:44PM
They were a former Google Lunar X Prize contestant but didn't get off the ground, like everyone else.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceIL [wikipedia.org]
More details about the funding in the article show that a nonprofit mission to the Moon's surface is not easy.
Now they don't have to pay the full ~$62 million cost of a Falcon 9 launch since they are a secondary payload, but you can imagine how Starship/BFR could improve things if it can launch at a lower cost than Falcon 9, carrying larger and more massive payloads at higher velocity, etc. If you make your payload small and cheap enough, maybe you can reach the Moon on a more modest crowdfunding budget.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by aristarchus on Monday February 04 2019, @07:07PM (1 child)
Political commentary, bad jokes, and anti-Semitism have no place on the front page of SoylentNews! We could have had an invigorating aristarchus submission, instead!
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Monday February 04 2019, @11:32PM
One of my Subs got Rejected for being written in my "Trump style." Which got me thinking, the Editors want me to hire a Ghost Writer. Have you thought about that one? Because they don't like aristarchus style either. Trust me, I can tell. Get one of those guys that BuzzFeed fired. And make him the Ghost of aristarchus. Or, write with your left hand. It will look very different!!
(Score: 3, Funny) by opinionated_science on Monday February 04 2019, @07:13PM (6 children)
When did the "Hockey Rink" become a new unit of measure?
Unless it is based on the Zamboni unit of momentum...;-)
(Score: 2) by RandomFactor on Monday February 04 2019, @08:25PM
You realize I'm gonna use that now...right?
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 3, Touché) by coolgopher on Monday February 04 2019, @10:49PM
Yeah, but how many zamboni hours would be required after the landers have hopped out of the rink?
(Score: 3, Funny) by JoeMerchant on Monday February 04 2019, @11:44PM
You're feeding the Canadian Troll...
Of course, if Canada wanted to make a statement as a nuclear capable world power - landing a full sized Ice Hockey Rink on the moon would be a good one.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by RandomFactor on Monday February 04 2019, @11:45PM (1 child)
It started here [soylentnews.org] on Wednesday January 09, @11:23PM
TFA used it to give the size of the CHIME telescope. Then followed this incisive observation by Knowledge Troll:
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 2) by RandomFactor on Tuesday February 05 2019, @12:23AM
It was really the whole thread:
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 2) by dry on Thursday February 07 2019, @06:14AM
I wondered whether Canadian or European hockey rink, 200x85 ft vs 60x30 metres.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_hockey_rink#Dimensions [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday February 04 2019, @07:23PM (3 children)
To my ear that name instantly translated to "bullshit" or "bear shit."
I wish them success but next time they should doublecheck their marketing (anyone remember the Chevy Nova not selling in South America?).
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 04 2019, @07:28PM
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/chevrolet-nova-name-spanish/ [snopes.com]
(Score: 3, Informative) by lentilla on Tuesday February 05 2019, @03:47AM (1 child)
This is entirely an artefact of the transliteration process from Hebrew to English. I had to double-take that ugly-sounding word until I got the emphasis correct. It's not "Beresheet", it is "b'RESH-it". (English and Hebrew apply emphasis to syllables differently.)
Now for the trivia buffs: the "b'" (ב, letter "bet") is the article "in" and the rest of the word is derived from the root (באת) (bet [on the right], aleph, tav), transliterates to "rosh" and it means "head". Thus "In the beginning". See also Rosh Hashanah - "Head of the Year" aka "New Year's Day". (Again, transliteration issues: "Hashanah" is pronounced "haSHANah" - the "ha" is the definite article.) Coincidentally, anyone familiar with the first sentence in the Bible? "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.", which (surprise, surprise!) begins "beresheet..."; and that; dear friends; is the Hebrew name for the Book of Genesis.
(Score: 2) by lentilla on Tuesday February 05 2019, @06:33AM
I need to issue a correction (crumbs, what I thinking!):
The root, transliterated as "rosh", is ראש (resh [letter on the right], aleph, shin). The rest is correct.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 05 2019, @02:33AM (2 children)
The jews will be gathering spy data all the way from the pre-launch sequence to the actual touchdown on the moon (an artificial body), if it will ever get there.
The spy device will be loaded on a rocket built by non-jews and the spy device will be gathering all data from the rocket (whatever it can). It will be recording all data and even conversations among engineers. Everything the jew gives you is suspect and should be considered hostile and looked at in detail for spying or for being a bomb.
Where did they get the money from? Tax money from their American victims?
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by realDonaldTrump on Tuesday February 05 2019, @05:59AM (1 child)
We live in the Age of Computer. The Age of Digital. Otherwise known as App. Doesn't everybody do the App nowadays? Make the App and pay our wonderful young people $20 a month to run it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 05 2019, @07:35AM
realDonaldTrump above is referring to the infamous (((facebook))) research app:
(Not off-topic at all, considering the post being replied to.)
https://www.dailydot.com/debug/facebook-research-app/ [dailydot.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 05 2019, @06:01AM