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.
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Israel's SpaceIL says it won't try second moonshot
SpaceIL, the Israeli company that attempted but failed to put an unmanned craft on the moon earlier this year, says it will not try a second moonshot.
The company issued a statement Tuesday saying its lunar mission in April has been widely hailed as "an exceptional success," despite crash landing on the moon. It says that "an attempt to repeat a trip to the moon is not enough of a challenge" and will instead search for a different mission.
Previously: Private Spacecraft Failed Moon Landing Today [UPDATED]
Israel Will Build Another Lunar Lander
Israeli Spacecraft Beresheet Crash Site Spotted on Moon
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Snotnose on Thursday May 16 2019, @11:16PM
Maybe it's because I'm old and when Armstrong landed on the moon I had 2 mikes on my reel to reel tape recorder, one on each side of my mono TV, for stereo (cut me a break, I was 11 years old).
It's amazeballs we can see images like this nowdays.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 16 2019, @11:44PM (1 child)
I've had more than my share of those landings when trying to put something on the Mun.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday May 17 2019, @06:41PM
I don't think you've been to the Mun. I think you just did the whole thing in a computer simulation and filmed that and now claim you went there.
*** Join the Flat Kerbin Society!!! ***
This sig for rent.
(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
Account abandoned.
(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)
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by JustNiz on Friday May 17 2019, @02:13AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUnSGz8vW0U [youtube.com]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by aristarchus on Friday May 17 2019, @07:55AM (5 children)
Did they find any Aristarchus submissions? I mean, other than in the Aristarchus Crater, where of course one would find aristarchus submissions, and submit them, since they are from a Crater on the Fucking Moon! Sometimes I think our Soylent Editors are completely Earth bound, like that.
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Friday May 17 2019, @10:24AM (4 children)
Magister should worry more about these:
(Sic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Sizes_and_Distances_(Aristarchus)#Results [wikipedia.org] )
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(Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Friday May 17 2019, @10:40AM (3 children)
Are you suggesting I was wrong? Well of course, instruments are much more precise today! Do you not think I keep up?
(I hope you hold Aristotle to the same standard!)
(Score: 2) by RamiK on Friday May 17 2019, @05:52PM (2 children)
A good craftsman never blames his tools:
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Sizes_and_Distances_(Aristarchus)#Results [wikipedia.org] )
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(Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Saturday May 18 2019, @08:17AM (1 child)
Ah, but a good scientist always mistrusts his instruments, and seeks to develop better ones. And it is a good idea to actually read your citations before you cite them, lest they undercut your case.
your wikipedia source
Funny, Archimedes himself was Greek.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 21 2019, @09:39AM
Yes, I remember laughing for like 10 minutes when I first learnt that.