Israel plans its launch of the first moon in December

An Israeli organization announced Tuesday its intention to launch the country's first spacecraft on the moon in December, in hopes of smoothing Israel's reputation as a small nation with high-tech ambitions from another world. weighing some 585 kilograms (1,300 pounds) at launch, will land on the moon on February 13, 2019 if all goes according to plan, SpaceIL organizers said at a press conference in Yehud, central Japan. Israel.

The mission of the American company Elon Musk, SpaceX, will include research on the magnetic field of the moon.

But his first task will be to plant an Israeli flag on the moon, according to the organizers.

Part of the Google Lunar XPrize, which offered in 2010 $ 30 million (25 million euros) in prizes to encourage scientists and entrepreneurs to offer relatively inexpensive moon missions.

Three young Tsar Israeli scientists, Yariv Bash, Kfir Damari and Yonatan Winetraub, decided to join the fray.

"We met in a pub and started discussing what it meant". Israel Aerospace Industries, envisioning a very small craft that they thought could land on the moon in 2013.

"As we went further in the project and more people joined, we understood its complexity" said Damari. Google's price expired in March without a winner having reached the moon, the Israel team is committed to moving forward.

A key figure for getting on board the project was Morris Kahn, an Israeli billionaire born in South Africa, who heard SpaceIL present his "I thought it was a good idea," he says, " and I asked them, "Do you have money? "

" They had not really thought about the financial side, "Kahn said, relaying how he gave them an initial grant of $ 100,000, with his growing support for the project For Kahn, for which Israel's interest in the moon alongside the three world powers already present – the United States, Russia and China – would be "a tremendous success". "

" Safeguard Plans "[19659011] Yossi Weiss, the CEO of IAI, said that conquering space is not only a way to prove technological prowess, but also more and more urgently needed. 39, a human race that quickly squandered its resources.

"We must think of relief plans," said Weiss. "The Earth is getting small" and finally "the future of humanity is in space. "

While the planned landing of the small unmanned vessel is a small step towards this end, it is & # 39; remains no less than a "very important".

On the Moon, the ship will transmit the data to the IAI control center for two days before her systems are shut down.

It is hoped that the success of the mission will inspire scientific curiosity among Israeli youth. We are trying to replicate the Apollo effect in the United States, "said Kahn, referring to the US program that landed the first humans on the moon in 1969.

" If we want to continue to be the country of "

But even before its launch, the pod and its project have aroused great interest among children, according to Damari.

"They say kids are excited about space, robots and dinosaurs. We have a robotic spacecraft – that's two out of three, "he said.

" When you meet the school "Even though they do not deal with the l? space but enter another area of ​​science or technology, we have realized the vision. "

Damari notes the turnaround his project has created in the Israeli space industry, which has focused on security-related projects and satellite launches for a long time.

"Since we started, we have seen more and more start-ups and space projects.The relatively light Israeli project, which was not initiated or funded by the state, could also mark a change in the way space-related projects are interpreted and realized, paving the way for more private initiatives. "This will show the way to the rest of the world" to send a spaceship to the moon at a reasonable cost, said Ofer Doron, chief of IAI's space division.

<! –

->