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:
SpaceX is targeting Thursday, February 21 for launch of the Nusantara Satu satellite from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The 32-minute launch window opens at 8:45 p.m. EST, or 1:45 UTC on February 22. Falcon 9 will also deliver the Beresheet lunar spacecraft and Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) S5 spacecraft to orbit. Deployments will occur at approximately 33 and 44 minutes after liftoff.
A 32-minute backup launch window opens on Friday, February 22 at 8:41 p.m. EST, or 1:41 UTC on February 23.
Falcon 9's first stage for the Nusantara Satu mission previously supported the Iridium-7 mission in July 2018 and the SAOCOM 1A mission in October 2018. Following stage separation, SpaceX will attempt to land Falcon 9's first stage on the "Of Course I Still Love You" droneship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
Previously: The Moon's Next Visitor
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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.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday February 21 2019, @09:37AM (5 children)
FTFY
Point: the reaction above it's bound to happen if you make public your privates.
Translation: WTF is relevant in being private if you actually seek public exposure/attention?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 21 2019, @10:25AM (1 child)
If Microsoft puts a man on the Moon, is it a public mission?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday February 21 2019, @08:39PM
MSFT is a public company, is it not? (grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Thursday February 21 2019, @01:15PM (2 children)
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday February 21 2019, @02:48PM (1 child)
Does anyone have a full breakdown of the funding?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceIL [wikipedia.org]
https://www.timesofisrael.com/with-sights-set-on-the-moon-israel-to-launch-privately-funded-spacecraft-friday/ [timesofisrael.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Touché) by bob_super on Thursday February 21 2019, @09:59PM
It's so "private", Bibi is already touting how great a moment it is going to be for Israel.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 21 2019, @10:27AM
They already made a movie about this endeavor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Sky [wikipedia.org]
Heil Likud!