“It’s a small step for man … one giant leap for mankind” uttered by Neil Armstrong audibly excited after he entered almost 50 years ago, the moon. Based on this, one could say today: It is only a small extra Luggage for the Falcon-9 rocket, and could be a great Triumph for Israel. Is meant to be the first lunar mission in the country. The robot “Beresheet” (Hebrew for Genesis) to salvation should arrive on the celestial body, Israel would be the fourth space nation, which has managed a soft landing, after Russia, the USA and China. But above all, it would be the first largely privately funded Mission to the moon. It has so far succeeded only major space agencies with the appropriate state funding to come to the moon.
hitchhiking to the moon
early Friday morning, at 2:45 PM (CET) to open the door now, Beresheet in the direction of the moon. However, it is only an accessory in the rocket of SpaceX. The main payload is an Indonesian communications satellite will be launched from Cape Canaveral (Florida) in a geostationary Orbit at 36 000 km height. Beresheet with flying piggyback and the gravity of the earth escapes. Even if it is a whole piece up to the moon – the mean distance from the earth is 380 000 km, cost of the final stage comparatively little energy, so that the entrained fuel is enough, if you approach it slowly. Always larger rounds to turn the probe around the earth, until you finally reach your goal and gently touches down on the surface of the moon.
the trigger for this moon flight of 2007 praised the Google Lunar X Prize, which should stimulate private space travel. $ 20 million would get the Team that ends up with a vessel gently on the moon and it is 500 meters. Several dozen space geeks went to work, including Yonatan Winetraub, 2009 was for a year at the Nasa Ames Research Center in Mountain View (California). “Unfortunately, I have not found anyone insane enough to join in,” he told a Reporter from NBC. Back in Israel, he found two like-Minded people, Yariv Bash, Kfir Damari. In a suburb of Tel Aviv, the three were sitting in a Bar, and with the alcohol level, the certainty, that they pull this now. They founded “SpaceIL”. Three quarters of an hour before the application deadline, on new year’s eve of the year of 2010, you sent your concept and were in the race. Many competitors gave up, also for Winetraub and his Team, it was bad. The first three designs for their Lander failed in the technical evaluation. But they stayed persistent and found supporters, especially the entrepreneurs and the billionaire Morris Khan, the Israeli space Agency, ISA, and the space technology company IAI. The deadline of the Google Lunar X Prize, although extended several times, passed in March 2018, without a winner.
The first largely privately funded moon landing
A year later, have done it now, the enthusiasts of SpaceIL, to make their moon probe. Beresheet should fulfill its Mission, the Team gets no money, but the honor of being the first largely privately funded moon landing managed. And the first Israeli to boot. These two objectives were also the main drivers that explain the creators. It’ll give you an “Apollo effect”: The Mission is to inspire people for high-tech and aerospace. Israel is strong in this industry and should stay that way.
the value of The Mission for the research is manageable. The probe laser has reflectors, the light pulse from the earth in exactly the same direction of throw back, in order to determine the orbit of the moon in more detail. Especially should Beresheet measure but with a very precise Magnetometer to the Weizmann Institute during the approach and after landing, the magnetic field of the moon. The earth has a global magnetic field generated by the upheavals of the iron-rich matter in the liquid outer core In addition, there are also local fields produced by the magnetization of Magma, as this long ago cooled. On the moon there is only local magnetic fields. “If there is no global magnetic field on the moon, how and when got the rocks there, then its magnetization is?” This is the big question, says Oded Aharonson of the Weizmann Institute, who directs the magnetic field measurements.
The Indian probe could overtake Beresheet
If the rocket engine at the bottom to move the robot by the Google Lunar X Prize required half a Kilometer from the landing site, is ignited, is yet to be decided. On the one hand, the “big step beckons,” on the other side of the Lander could topple over or even explode.
at The Moment the Team has other things to Worry about. The Indian space Agency ISRO wants to launch in April of its next lunar probe called “Chandrayaan-2”. Their flight time will be significantly shorter, and it is not excluded, Winetraub, the Indian Lander touches down may first.
the success of The Israeli Mission, which is obviously more likely to demonstrate a technology in development to operate as a science, is crucial for the future. “The technical Know-how, the data collected, the experience of a space mission beyond a state program and is the Inspiration for a whole Generation of young people – especially in Israel and the Middle East – will provide important insights and inspirations for the coming decades,” commented the space specialist, John Horack of the Ohio State University in the science blog “The Conversation”.
The lunar euphoria reached Europe
“For Israel, it would obviously be a great success if the Mission is successful,” says Hansjörg Dittus, Executive Board member for space research and technology in the German center for air and space travel. “But when it comes to the exploration of the moon, we need bigger payloads. If we assume a Rover that has different instruments on Board and which also goes a certain distance on the moon, since we are quickly on several Hundred kilograms or even a ton of weight.“ For comparison: Beresheet was so slim that it is a vehicle with 185 pounds (plus fuel for the journey) is the lightest that has ever been sent to the moon.
of Course, it is the Israelis also about the 95 million dollars of investment to recoup, through follow-up orders. At the end of January, the space group, IAI, which built the Lander has concluded an agreement with OHB System AG of Bremen, Germany. Based on the development you want to offer to the European space Agency Esa lunar landing system for payloads up to 150 kg. In fact, the Esa has been on the moon for years, for not exciting enough to start their own missions. The mood turns just now, the moon euphoria has reached the old continent. What will Europe do exactly in terms of the moon and, and how the requests will be funded, in addition to the Esa Ministerial conference will decide in November. Then it will show whether the Israeli-German industry-the offer has a Chance. But first must prove themselves Beresheet.
German moon mission. 2020 stand out
A major competitor in the Google Lunar X Prize for a long time, the Problem of Berlin You have achieved an intermediate goal, but continued to work. Meanwhile, a 70-people strong company is to become of it. At the beginning of 2020, it wants to bring two of the Rover on the moon, the historic landing sites of the Apollo program, visit images and Videos to earth to send. As a Partner in the New Audi and Vodafone have won, a SpaceX rocket is scheduled to transport the Rover. In the long term, more missions will follow, in which customers from industry and research buy the taxi services for their devices to the moon, using the Lander and Rover technology to the goal. With the Ariane group, and Space Application Services Problem explores just how the European space Agency, Esa gets a Mission to use the Regolith to the moon. In the case of the concept “in-situ resource use” (ISRU), not all of the raw materials of the earth to bring, but to use existing on the respective celestial bodies. The moon deals specifically with water and oxygen to be extracted from the lunar soil to supply a moon base or as a fuel for flights to other destinations.
