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Moon Space The Almighty Buck

Israel To Launch First Privately Funded Moon Mission (theguardian.com) 161

Posted by BeauHD from the first-of-its-kind dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: A team of Israeli scientists is to launch what will be the first privately funded mission to land on the moon this week, sending a spacecraft to collect data from the lunar surface. Named Beresheet, the Hebrew word for Genesis, the 585kg (1,290lb) robotic lander will blast off from Florida at 01.45 GMT on Friday, propelled by one of Elon Musk's SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets. Once it touches down, in several weeks, it will measure the magnetic field of the moon to help understand how it formed. Beresheet will also deposit a "time capsule" of digital files the size of coins containing the Bible, children's drawings, Israel's national anthem and blue and white flag, as well as memories of a Holocaust survivor. While it is not a government-led initiative, the state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) corporation joined as a partner. If the mission is successful, Israel will become the fourth country, after Russia, the U.S. and China, to reach the moon. "This is the lowest-budget spacecraft to ever undertake such a mission," an IAI statement said of the $100 million project. "The superpowers who managed to land a spacecraft on the moon have spent hundreds of millions." It added that although it was a private venture, Beresheet was a "national and historic achievement."
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Israel To Launch First Privately Funded Moon Mission More

Israel To Launch First Privately Funded Moon Mission

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  • Seriously? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    "containing the Bible, children's drawings, Israel's national anthem and blue and white flag, as well as memories of a Holocaust survivor" - What, no tiny bagels?

  • Well, yes, but (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Brett Buck ( 811747 ) on Wednesday February 20, 2019 @10:44PM (#58155938)

    "The superpowers who managed to land a spacecraft on the moon have spent hundreds of millions."

        Yes, 50 years ago, and having to develop the entire thing from scratch instead of opening a bunch of catalogs and buying the parts.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by bunyip ( 17018 )

      Exactly what I thought. Just wondering if Berzerkistan could buy a launch from Elon Musk and land a thumb drive on the moon, claiming 5th place?

      A.

    • The superpowers who managed to land a spacecraft on the moon have spent hundreds of millions.

      Yes, 50 years ago, and having to develop the entire thing from scratch instead of opening a bunch of catalogs and buying the parts.

      And... if I recall correctly, one of those superpowers sent several spacecraft, with people in them, to the moon and back.

      So, while it will be a great achievement, don't break an arm jerking yourself off (to quote Rick Sanchez) as you still spent $100M on a "probe" to be launched on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster (a US company) -- while the super powers, of which you speak, built their own back in the day.

      Congrats, but settle down.

      • to be launched on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster (a US company)

        It would be rather difficult for Israel to launch things to high energy trajectories for reasons of geography. So I wouldn't blame them for the lack of capability. I mean, they *could* technically do it, but then some people would scream bloody murder even more.

  • errr... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by iggymanz ( 596061 ) on Wednesday February 20, 2019 @11:01PM (#58155984)

    So the Iz are going to put a thing atop an American rocket and claim they "reached the moon"?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      First, that $100 million isn't theirs when countries like the USA have been literally GIVING them billions every year.
      Second, Israel has been MURDERING palestinians, and STEALING their land for decades.
      So Israel can suck a dick.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      So the Iz are going to put a thing atop an American rocket and claim they "reached the moon"?

      As if it's not enough, the thing blasted off from Florida, and not from Jerusalem.

      If it's claimed to be an ISRAELIS project, MAKE IT SO !!!

      • The American contribution apparently ends 10% along the way to the Moon. So if it succeeds, is calling the success 90% Israeli going to keep you happy?

      • Great idea. You know that rockets are launched towards the east, right?

        Let's imagine for a moment that it fails and comes down prematurely. Now take a globe and find out what countries would be the most likely recipients of this guaranteed to explode rocket launched from Israel.

        Yeah. That would end well.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Octorian ( 14086 )

          That's why Israel's own rockets launch to the west. However, those mostly get used to launch spy satellites. They also have a smaller payload capacity.
          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shavit

          • Launching to the west means that you need more fuel. And going to the moon is already something that takes a lot of fuel, even if you don't have to compensate for Earth's rotation twice.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        "As if it's not enough, the thing blasted off from Florida, and not from Jerusalem."

        That's because there are more Jews in Florida than in Israel.

    • Re:errr... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by tal_mud ( 303383 ) on Thursday February 21, 2019 @01:34AM (#58156336)

      It's not as simple as you think. Building the lunar lander is a major achievement. Indeed, google offered a $30,000,000 prize for the lunar lander part even after taking into account the existence of commercial launch systems. See: https://lunar.xprize.org/prize... [xprize.org]. The Israeli team missed the deadline, but, if their lander succeeds, will have achieved the goal.

    • Re: errr... (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      It is a fair and legitimate claim to make, that it is an Israeli achievement. It includes Israeli building and Israeli funding.

      If there's a threshold of 100% built by, or 100% funded by, modern rocketry would be expressed quite differently, with variants like:

      - travel to the Space Station is a triumph of Russian technology with its cohort of rent-paying passengers

      - the nukes in Pakistan that the Saudis allegedly have on a five- minute phone call, are a triumph of Saudi funding and are therefore actually Riy

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      It's a group of privately funded Israeli scientists leading the mission, rather than the state of Israel. Also, the headline is self-contradictory in that sense.

  • Mel Brooks called it (Score:4, Funny)

    by paiute ( 550198 ) on Wednesday February 20, 2019 @11:11PM (#58156016)
    https://www.dailymotion.com/vi... [dailymotion.com]

  • Beresheet will also deposit a "time capsule" of digital files the size of coins containing the Bible, children's drawings, Israel's national anthem and blue and white flag, as well as memories of a Holocaust survivor.

    Wrong. What you have are transistors, and the hope that someone will be able to read their on-off state at some indeterminate point in the future.

    • they thought of that. there are manpa-

      nevermind.

    • Wrong. What you have are transistors, and the hope that someone will be able to read their on-off state at some indeterminate point in the future

      Why would they send transistors instead of physically encoded data like everyone else? All of our space junk has miniature data of some sorts. My name is written out in plain text on a piece of silicon floating around in space right now. It seems likely that space-faring animals of the future will have figured out light refraction and be able to read all this.

      Flash and other re-writable technology doesn't last long and anyone who can build a moon lander will know this. So if they sent up transistors it'll b

  • Don't be snarky. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by az-saguaro ( 1231754 ) on Thursday February 21, 2019 @02:27AM (#58156444)

    So far, the posts in response to this article are all sarcastic and cynical, mocking the claim of "reaching the moon" when they are just hitching a ride on SpaceX, not to mention riding the coattails of big nation states that have spent billions over half a century to develop the foundational technologies and do it all in grander style. But think about the historical significance of this. It may be small potatoes in a sense, but it is indeed the first time that a non-governmental low budget endeavor gets there (if it succeeds). The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. You cannot do something the 2nd and 3rd time without doing it the first time. Making inexpensive or commercially feasible trips to the moon with some regularity will depend on projects of this magnitude and expense, and at some point, somebody does it first, and this is it.

    True, they are not running the whole show themselves. The launch comes from a an established carrier. But therein is another wondrous thing. A government rocket is not lifting them, a private enterprise is. And don't forget that with complex technologies, businesses are highly interconnected and dependent on each other - no one company can do it all themselves - even NASA needed thousands of subcontractors to get Apollo there and back. Furthermore, all they are doing with SpaceX is getting off the ground, and nowadays, that's easy. Not so easy is dropping out of orbit and landing, without overshooting or crashing, and the Israeli craft will do that on its own. And, a small potatoes budget forces you to be clever, and how they are going to get from low orbit to the moon on minimum weight and fuel is itself inspiring, lessons to be learned for all the moon trekkers who hope to follow.

    If nothing else, this kind of event can inspire other pioneers and entrepreneurs that it can be done. Something hasn't been done until the moment it is done, and whoever did it, they were the first. Their pride is understandable. You would be too if you were the first, and we would equally applaud and be inspired by you. This opens the gates, and more will follow. Who knows, next could be the Jamaican bob-rocket team. (And instead of Tang, rum and mauby.)

  • I guess if they can afford this type of thing, they'll need no future foreign aid from the U.S.

  • ... equivalent to a gold rush.

    For those simple bastards who want to go to Mars, here's your alpha and beta site.

    Experiments on the far side (see Gary Larson) will be shielded from instrument noise generated by Earth. That's good science.

    Imagine launching payloads from the Moon to reach either the Earth or Mars or targets of opportunity.

    If China would only mention, "nuclear weapons," we could get this show on the road.

  • I want to point out that the cost comparison was skewed in currency conversion. The article quotes a cost of £77m, followed by the statement “The superpowers who managed to land a spacecraft on the moon have spent hundreds of millions.” which is still referring to pounds. Just wanted to point out why the comparison in the summary didn't make much sense.

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