Israel has for the first time sent a space probe to the moon. The small probe “Beresheet” began its seven-week trip to the moon in the night of Friday from the spaceport at Cape Canaveral in the U.S. state of Florida. There is a Falcon-9 rocket, the space travel company SpaceX, Tesla boss Elon Musk launched on time at 2.45 PM Central European time. The moon landing of the probe on the 11. April expected.
Well a Minute after the Start, had reached the rocket is already travelling at supersonic speed, and shot as a bright strip through the night sky. Was promoted with more than 450 tons of fuel, a mixture of kerosene and liquid oxygen. The space command of the U.S. air force congratulated on Twitter to a successful Start.
The first rocket stage landed as planned on a floating landing platform. A good 30 minutes after the Start, the space probe was detached from the rocket and into the orbit of the earth. On Board the rocket, an Indonesian satellite called “Nusantara Satu”, as well as a satellite for experimental purposes in the U.S. air force.
“Beresheet” is the Hebrew Name of the 1. The book of Moses in the Bible. On Board the unmanned probe, about the size of a washing machine, is supposed to be a time capsule with hundreds of digital files. Including a Hebrew Bible, which is stored on a carrier in coin size.
The small Israel will be the major powers USA, Russia and China the fourth country that ends up with a space ship on the moon. In the case of a successful landing Beresheet would be the first privately funded Mini-space ship that reaches the surface of another celestial body.
The goal: commercial moon landings
of The Soviet Union in 1966, with the probe “Luna 9 was” the first moon landing. In the same year, the US space Agency Nasa with “Surveyor 1”. China moved in 2013 with the probe “Chang’e-3,” which dropped the Rover “Yutu” on the moon.
The Israeli Nonprofit organization SpaceIL, which is behind the project, wants to create a prototype for future commercial moon landings. The construction of the probe has cost the equivalent of 84 million euros. The money came mainly from private donors.
The probe with a weight of just 600 kilograms and one and a half metres in height, should set an Israeli flag on the moon and the magnetic field to investigate. The landing of the Institute and the Nasa measurement data is transferred to help, among other things, in research on the formation of the moon and its magnetic field.
Japanese space probe “Hayabusa 2” lands on Asteroid
A success from the All Japan was able to announce in the night. The space probe “Hayabusa 2” is landed in about 300 million kilometres from the earth on the asteroid Ryugu. The unmanned probe sent data, informed the Japanese space Agency Jaxa on Friday morning. “Hayabusa 2” is supposed to collect Material from the surface.
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Ralf Nestler
the end of next year, the probe will return to earth. Its predecessor model was already launched worldwide in 2010 for the first time, soil samples of an asteroid to the earth. The researchers want to come up with the Mission of the origins of the solar system on the track. (dpa)
