Philosophy
"Israel’s Mission to the Moon: Can a Small Country Win a Big Prize?"
by
Aaron J. Klein
March 8th, 2013
Time
Confronted with the notion of Israel sending a spacecraft to the moon, as Yanki Margalit was one day two years ago, the hi-tech millionaire recalled his options as one or the other: He could laugh, which he acknowledged was a reasonable temptation. Or he could do what he went ahead and did, putting up the $50,000 required to enter Google’s Lunar X Prize international space race. The entry fee was pocket change beside the $30 million it will take to put together the first soft lunar landing since the Soviet Union’s Luna 24 returned with some soil samples in 1976.
“We were naïve,” says Margalit, of the initial estimates developed by Team SpaceIL.
“In the beginning we thought it would cost $8 million and the spaceship would be the size of a Coke bottle.” The reality turned out to be larger in every way: The unmanned craft Margalit’s team aims to land on the lunar surface before the end of 2015 looks more like a credenza.
It’s still a relatively miniature spacecraft, but then Israel is a relatively small country. It’s also one used to punching above its weight, especially in the applied sciences and hi-tech, where miniaturization is a given. As the so-called Start-Up Nation, Israel ranks behind only the U.S. and China in companies listed on Nasdaq; it also ranks high in time its citizens spend online, which is where the lunar effort started. In November 2010 an engineer named Yariv Bash went on Facebook to ask if anyone was interested in being part of the Google contest. Another engineer, Kfir Damari saw the post and said he would. A third, Yonataon Winetraub, got wind of the idea, and the three got together in a pub in Holon, a suburb of Tel Aviv. “We sat down and on a napkin wrote the problems were are facing till today – launching the spaceship, the journey, and then landing safely on the moon,” says Winetraub, 26. Someone thought to keep the napkin.
Much has changed since the original Space Race, a clean-room version of the Cold War. But the basic challenges remain: Clear the earth’s atmosphere, break free of its orbit, and find the trajectory that will snag the moon’s gravitational pull – a task the engineers liken to threading a needle from five stories up. Part one turned out to be the easiest: Rather than build their version of a Saturn V rocket to escape the earth’s atmosphere, the Israelis plan to pay to hitch a ride on a rocket launching a commercial satellite. Once in earth’s orbit, their 300-pound craft will fire its own jets to escape earth’s orbit, and make the 384,000 kilometer journey to the moon. They expect the trip will take about a month. Once it’s slipped into lunar orbit, the craft might circle the moon for as long as two weeks, waiting for the most propitious moment to descend to the lunar surface – the most perilous 15 minutes of the enterprise. On Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong maneuvered the Eagle to avoid boulders in the Sea of Tranquility too small to show up on reconnaissance photos but big enough to upend the lunar lander. The Israeli spacecraft will not have that luxury, following a descent programmed before lift-off. To increase the odds of landing upright, some 200 high school students have been scouting landing spots; they’ve narrowed it down to a few dozen sites so far.
Involving students is a major justification for the effort, a nonprofit enterprise that, if it wins, will recover at most its costs – the total prize could reach $30 million. The effort is sponsored, in part, by the Israel Aerospace Industries, a military enterprise specializing in ballistic missiles. But as its chief pointed out on Israeli television last month, the project makes no particular sense in business or security terms – the main drivers for Israel’s hi-tech sector. “It’s only prestige,” the executive said. “It’s about innovating and thinking long term.” To draw attention, Team SpaceIL has been inviting ordinary people to send their names and digital photos for a thumb drive that will be carried along; judging by the rate at which the late Neil Armstrong’s footprints are degrading on the lunar surface, they’re offering a 10,000 year guarantee.
Thirty-three contestants paid to compete for the Lunar X Prize. Of the 23 considered still active, the Israelis see five as serious threats, which include a number of American companies. The contest requires a “soft landing” – some moon shots were literally that, spacecraft launched at the moon and impact the surface at 3,000 miles an hour. Not only must the Lunar X entrant broadcast eight minutes of video after landing, the craft must then take off again – or, rather, “leap,” some 500 meters, then transmit video for another eight minutes. The Israelis plan to launch in 2015, provided they can raise the $30 million. They’re two-thirds of the way there, Margalit says.
“Think about it,” Margalit tells TIME. “Three countries will have landed on the moon: The United States, Russia and Israel. What fun to be able to say that.”
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- Moon Gets 2.5 Minutes Of Fame On Youtube
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Almost 40 years ago this day [July 30th, 19171] Apollo 15 landed on the Moon. And one of the items brought back to Earth was the so-called “Genesis Rock” which after analysis was dated to be 4.5 billion years old making it almost as old as the solar...
Philosophy
Israeli spacecraft destined for a Moon landing?
Yariv Bash, Yonatan Winetraub, and Kfir Damari, three of SpaceIL's founders, with a model of the unmanned spacecraft they aim to land on the surface of the moon.
"Israel’s Mission to the Moon: Can a Small Country Win a Big Prize?"
by
Aaron J. Klein
March 8th, 2013
Time
Confronted with the notion of Israel sending a spacecraft to the moon, as Yanki Margalit was one day two years ago, the hi-tech millionaire recalled his options as one or the other: He could laugh, which he acknowledged was a reasonable temptation. Or he could do what he went ahead and did, putting up the $50,000 required to enter Google’s Lunar X Prize international space race. The entry fee was pocket change beside the $30 million it will take to put together the first soft lunar landing since the Soviet Union’s Luna 24 returned with some soil samples in 1976.
“We were naïve,” says Margalit, of the initial estimates developed by Team SpaceIL.
“In the beginning we thought it would cost $8 million and the spaceship would be the size of a Coke bottle.” The reality turned out to be larger in every way: The unmanned craft Margalit’s team aims to land on the lunar surface before the end of 2015 looks more like a credenza.
It’s still a relatively miniature spacecraft, but then Israel is a relatively small country. It’s also one used to punching above its weight, especially in the applied sciences and hi-tech, where miniaturization is a given. As the so-called Start-Up Nation, Israel ranks behind only the U.S. and China in companies listed on Nasdaq; it also ranks high in time its citizens spend online, which is where the lunar effort started. In November 2010 an engineer named Yariv Bash went on Facebook to ask if anyone was interested in being part of the Google contest. Another engineer, Kfir Damari saw the post and said he would. A third, Yonataon Winetraub, got wind of the idea, and the three got together in a pub in Holon, a suburb of Tel Aviv. “We sat down and on a napkin wrote the problems were are facing till today – launching the spaceship, the journey, and then landing safely on the moon,” says Winetraub, 26. Someone thought to keep the napkin.
Much has changed since the original Space Race, a clean-room version of the Cold War. But the basic challenges remain: Clear the earth’s atmosphere, break free of its orbit, and find the trajectory that will snag the moon’s gravitational pull – a task the engineers liken to threading a needle from five stories up. Part one turned out to be the easiest: Rather than build their version of a Saturn V rocket to escape the earth’s atmosphere, the Israelis plan to pay to hitch a ride on a rocket launching a commercial satellite. Once in earth’s orbit, their 300-pound craft will fire its own jets to escape earth’s orbit, and make the 384,000 kilometer journey to the moon. They expect the trip will take about a month. Once it’s slipped into lunar orbit, the craft might circle the moon for as long as two weeks, waiting for the most propitious moment to descend to the lunar surface – the most perilous 15 minutes of the enterprise. On Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong maneuvered the Eagle to avoid boulders in the Sea of Tranquility too small to show up on reconnaissance photos but big enough to upend the lunar lander. The Israeli spacecraft will not have that luxury, following a descent programmed before lift-off. To increase the odds of landing upright, some 200 high school students have been scouting landing spots; they’ve narrowed it down to a few dozen sites so far.
Involving students is a major justification for the effort, a nonprofit enterprise that, if it wins, will recover at most its costs – the total prize could reach $30 million. The effort is sponsored, in part, by the Israel Aerospace Industries, a military enterprise specializing in ballistic missiles. But as its chief pointed out on Israeli television last month, the project makes no particular sense in business or security terms – the main drivers for Israel’s hi-tech sector. “It’s only prestige,” the executive said. “It’s about innovating and thinking long term.” To draw attention, Team SpaceIL has been inviting ordinary people to send their names and digital photos for a thumb drive that will be carried along; judging by the rate at which the late Neil Armstrong’s footprints are degrading on the lunar surface, they’re offering a 10,000 year guarantee.
Thirty-three contestants paid to compete for the Lunar X Prize. Of the 23 considered still active, the Israelis see five as serious threats, which include a number of American companies. The contest requires a “soft landing” – some moon shots were literally that, spacecraft launched at the moon and impact the surface at 3,000 miles an hour. Not only must the Lunar X entrant broadcast eight minutes of video after landing, the craft must then take off again – or, rather, “leap,” some 500 meters, then transmit video for another eight minutes. The Israelis plan to launch in 2015, provided they can raise the $30 million. They’re two-thirds of the way there, Margalit says.
“Think about it,” Margalit tells TIME. “Three countries will have landed on the moon: The United States, Russia and Israel. What fun to be able to say that.”
- Deceased--john C. Houbolt
John C. Houbolt April 10th, 1919 to April 15th, 2014 "John C. Houbolt dies at 95; NASA engineer made moon landing possible" Houbolt's efforts convinced the space agency to focus on landing a module carrying a crew from lunar orbit rather than a rocket...
- Jade Rabbit Has Landed On The Moon
"China's Jade Rabbit Moon rover sends back first photos" December 15th, 2013 BBC NEWS The first robot to land on the Moon in nearly 40 years, China's Jade Rabbit rover, has begun sending back photos, with shots of its lunar lander. Jade Rabbit...
- A Lunar Satellite?
This is ridiculous. Would the asteroid have any effect on Earth's tides? "NASA mulls plan to drag asteroid into moon's orbit" by Jeff Hecht January 2nd, 2013 New Scientist Who says NASA has lost interest in the moon? Along with rumours of...
- Moon Gets 2.5 Minutes Of Fame On Youtube
"Video: Year of Moon Motion in 2.5 Minutes" by Alice Vincent June 15th, 2011 Wired UK Many claim to see a man in the moon, but now an animation has been made that showcases a year’s worth of moon movements in less than three minutes. Topographical...
- “genesis Rock”
Almost 40 years ago this day [July 30th, 19171] Apollo 15 landed on the Moon. And one of the items brought back to Earth was the so-called “Genesis Rock” which after analysis was dated to be 4.5 billion years old making it almost as old as the solar...