[ad_1]
The three young men who came to my office almost a decade ago were disappointed. They just finished enthusiastically their intention to build a small spaceship that could land on the moon, send a photo from there, then cross about 500 meters and send another photo.
"We will do it in 3 or 4 years, for a cost of $ 10 million," said Yariv, Kfir and Yonatan, "and we will win the $ 20 million prize awarded by Google to the first private group (non-governmental) Who will do it.We will give the prize money to educational activities that will encourage young Israelis to study science and technology in general and space in particular.After all, only the United States, Russia and China have done it before us! "
The mission of Israel on the moon (Photo: SpaceX)
Their three faces fell when I told them that, in my estimation, the vehicle would cost at least $ 80 million, four times more than the price itself. This reminded me of similar situations in which I was when I had their age, when my ideas were seriously doubted. However, I was lucky and despite the skepticism, I always had the opportunity to prove my ideas. What do we have to lose? I thought about it.
According to Israeli antitrust laws, the investment was to come mainly from private sources, so that it would not risk any public money.
"You know what," I say, "I'll give you 10 minutes to present the idea at next week's space conference at Tel Aviv University, and we'll make sure the conference includes philanthropists trained in Israel who have Zionist pride flowing in their veins ".
Morris Kahn at SpaceIL (Photo: Shaul Golan)
And that's what happened. Philanthropist Morris Kahn, who donated several hundreds of thousands of dollars on the spot to materialize this idea, eventually witnessed the main burden of donations to the project, whose final cost (including launching) reached around $ 100 million. He has also worked to recruit key people to manage SpaceIL (including me). The rest belongs to history: the spacecraft is currently heading towards the moon.
The real lesson of this story is the entrepreneurial culture in Israel. No amount of skepticism can prevent a group of young entrepreneurs from trying to materialize an idea they believe in.
All the basics needed to achieve technological dreams – creativity, technological know-how, mobilization of talented people on a voluntary basis, financing, etc. – are present around us in Israel; just reach out and take them. That's why Israel is now considered a world center for advanced technologies, and that's why our economy is booming. ?
Isaac Ben Israel is General in the IDF Reserves and President of the Israeli Space Agency.
[ad_2]
Source link