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Old 22-02-2019, 12:21 PM
gary
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Post Privately funded Israeli robotic moon lander launched on SpaceX Falcon 9

Reuters report that a robotic moon lander built by private donors
in Israel has launched from Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9
rocket.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sydney Morning Herald, Reuters
The unmanned robotic explorer named Beresheet - Hebrew for "genesis" or "in the beginning" - lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 8.45pm local time (12.45pm on Friday) atop a Falcon 9 rocket launched by Elon Musk's SpaceX company.

The 585-kilogram, dishwasher-sized lander was built by Israeli nonprofit space venture SpaceIL and state-owned defence contractor Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) with $US100 million furnished almost entirely by private donors.

Beresheet is due to arrive on the near side of the moon in April following a two-month, 6.5 million-kilometre journey.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Reuters, Sydney Morning Herald
"This is the beginning of Israel's story in deep space ... whether this succeeds or fails," SpaceIL president and billionaire high-tech developer Morris Kahn, who invested $US44 million of his own money into the Beresheet project, said.

The Falcon 9 rocket will thrust Beresheet into a "long and complex" Earth orbit where it will spend roughly five weeks gradually widening its orbit until it is close enough to enter the moon's gravitational field.

From there, the spacecraft will execute a series of manoeuvres to reach its destination between the landing sites of Apollo 15 and 17 by mid-April.

During a mission slated to last just two to three days on the moon, Beresheet will use on board instruments to photograph the landing site on the Sea of Tranquility, SpaceIL vice-president Yigal Harel said.

It will also measure the moon's magnetic field and send all the data back to SpaceIL's Israel-based ground station Yehud, via NASA's Deep Space Network, he said.

If successful, Beresheet will end up as the prototype for a series of future moon landing missions planned jointly by IAI and Germany's OHB System on behalf of the European Space Agency.

SpaceIL has no plans for future explorations of its own beyond Beresheet and "will not continue after this mission", Harel said.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Reuters, Sydney Morning Herald
The mission began in earnest in 2009, when founders Yariv Bash, Kfir Damari and Yonatan Winetraub registered for Google’s Lunar X Prize - a moon race to build and land a commercial lunar spacecraft. The first competitors to do it would win a $US20 million first-place prize.

They founded SpaceIL in 2011 and, in 2015, scored a launch contract with SpaceX. SpaceIL was later named one of five finalists for the prize, along with Cape Canaveral-based Moon Express.

But as the competition wore on, it became apparent that none of the companies were going to be able to meet the deadline to land on the moon, and so Google ultimately scrapped the competition in March 2018.

But SpaceIL and IAI pushed ahead, surviving financial challenges to complete the lander. In addition to Kahn, Dr Miriam Adelson, an Israeli-American doctor and philanthropist, and her husband, casino magnate and investor Sheldon Adelson, contributed $US24 million to keep the lunar lander soaring.
Story and video here :-
https://www.smh.com.au/technology/is...22-p50zki.html
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Old 27-02-2019, 09:56 AM
gary
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Israeli spacecraft hits first snag on lunar voyage

Quote:
Originally Posted by phys.org
An Israeli spacecraft that blasted off last week for the country's first attempted lunar landing has encountered a technical glitch on its voyage to the moon.

Engineers at the nonprofit SpaceIL said Tuesday that the on-board computer system unexpectedly reset, canceling a maneuver that would keep the small spacecraft, called Beresheet, on track for its April landing. The team says it is examining the data to understand what happened.

On its winding journey, Beresheet is to slingshot around the Earth at least six times. If the mission succeeds, it will be the first privately funded lunar landing. It will also be a major accomplishment for Israel, which seeks to become the fourth nation to reach the lunar surface, after the U.S., Russia and China.
Story here :-
https://phys.org/news/2019-02-israel...ar-voyage.html
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Old 27-02-2019, 11:01 AM
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RB (Andrew)
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Watching this closely too.
Hope they can get בְּרֵאשִׁית back on track.

RB

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Old 27-02-2019, 11:10 AM
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multiweb (Marc)
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Quote:
Engineers at the nonprofit SpaceIL said Tuesday that the on-board computer system unexpectedly reset
Hope it wasn't a Windows 10 security update requiring a reboot.
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Old 27-02-2019, 11:11 AM
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Hope it wasn't a Windows 10 security update requiring a reboot.


I bet it was....
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Old 27-02-2019, 07:42 PM
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multiweb (Marc)
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A 30-Million-Page Archive Of Humanity's Achievements Is Headed To The Moon

https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2019/02/a...d-to-the-moon/
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