For the lunar Israelis, faith is a source of inspiration and challenge

(RNS) – As the engineers of SpaceIL, an Israeli for-profit organization, were preparing for the launch of their lunar lander last year, they did what most aerospace engineers do: they have checked and rechecked each element of their tiny spacecraft by planning every imaginable problem that could hinder his journey to the moon.

At least one is also worried about the schedule.

SpaceIL Systems Engineering Manager Alexander Friedman, who is in charge of all operations related to the group's Beresheet lander after its launch, identifies himself as an orthodox Jew. As such, it does not work on the Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath that lasts from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.

But SpaceX, the US aerospace company with which SpaceIL is associated to propel its lander into orbit, typically launches its rockets on Saturday.

"Because I am a religious, it is forbidden to work on Saturdays except (in a) very extreme situation," Friedman, 68, told Religion's news service.

He said that this had led to many "long discussions" between SpaceIL and SpaceX, in hopes of moving the launch to another day of the week.

SpaceX declined to comment as a result of these discussions, but it appears the issue was finally resolved: the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket took off in space with Beresheet aboard on Thursday, Feb. 21, from the base of Cape Canaveral, Florida. : 45 pm – which is just before 4 am Friday in Israel.

The launching moment was only one of many religious elements surrounding the Israeli lander Beresheet, whose name is a reference to the Hebrew word for "early" that introduces the biblical book of Genesis . The spacecraft – which carries copies of Jewish prayers and holy texts – is about to mark the history of Israel and the privately funded space industry, it is also a discreet model for the wider aerospace industry of how religion and science work together to reach the stars.

Originally conceived in a Tel Aviv bar in 2010 by an Israeli computer engineer and two of his friends, Beresheet was designed as part of Google's Lunar X Prize contest, which offered $ 20 million to first group funded by private funds to pose a robotic spacecraft. the lunar surface.

The competition ended without a winner in January 2018 (although SpaceIL was a finalist), but the Beresheet team – which had spent years making a gear as economical as possible – continued to move forward. In contrast to its business-centric competitors, SpaceIL had secured funds from philanthropists convinced of the billionaire's cause like Morris Kahn, an Israeli telecommunications tycoon, and reputable US Republican Party donor Sheldon Adelson.

The result was a lander with a budget that was tackling a SpaceX rocket with the main goal of encouraging Israeli schoolchildren to learn about space and engineering. It also carries a religious cargo: the lander carries a capsule containing discs containing Israeli symbols, a Bible and a copy of the Wayfarer's Prayer – a security prayer that is often recited by Jews.

A separate "lunar library" provided by the Arch Mission Foundation is also on board Beresheet and includes texts from multiple world religions housed in a huge "archive of 30 million pages of human history and civilization" resembling a DVD.

"The Lunar Library contains the Old and New Testament in many editions and languages", Nova Spivack, co-founder of the Arch Mission Foundation, says RNS via Twitter. "It also contains all the other religions of the world, as any good library should do it."

Before the launch, Friedman told the Cleveland Jewish News that he had written a prayer for the mission in which he hoped that God would "lead our spacecraft to peace and bring it back to peace, and save it from all kinds of things." malfunctions, and would allow us to see what was happening. he reaches the moon in peace. "

Malfunctions are a major concern for the mission because, according to its economical approach, Beresheet uses an inexpensive and cost-effective method to get to the moon. Rather than taking off and immediately rejoining the Earth's silver satellite, the tiny lander has entered orbit around the Earth and is slowly elongating in ever-increasing rotations by means of small, energy-saving maneuvers. .

It is planned to extend its elliptical rotations until it is captured by the gravity of the moon. The lander will then be able to land and complete his mission – gather mainly images and study the magnetic field of the moon – before deteriorating under the lunar heat.

Friedman said he and his team worked to time maneuvers on days that did not overlap with Shabbos. This is an additional complication for an approach that is already time consuming and takes more than a month and a half. Engineers do not expect Beresheet to land on the moon before 11 April.

The race has not been so easy so far. Just days after the launch, Beresheet's computer unexpectedly rebooted, prompting SpaceIL engineers and its partner, Israel Aerospace Industries, to cancel a maneuver until the situation was resolved.

Nevertheless, the atypical approach leaves enough time for the LG for epic views: it has returned several spatial "selfies" starring the planet Earth hovering in a black void just above ground level. a sign attached next to the undercarriage. The banner carries the image of an Israeli flag waving next to two slogans – one in English that says "Small country, big dreams" and the other in Hebrew that translates to "The Jewish people live".

For Friedman, a seasoned engineer who has worked in the space flight industry for 35 years – including as System Engineering Manager and responsible for the launch phase and initial orbital phase for various communications satellite missions Israeli "Amos" – these moments remind him why he is doing his job. the first place.

"I do not see any contradiction between these two aspects – science and religion," he said, pointing out that he had modified his work schedule during previous missions to adapt to Shabbat. "From a religious point of view, at least in my opinion … we want to know as much as possible what God (does)."

Friedman's words were echoed by Rabbi Geoffrey Mitelman, founding director of Sinai and Synapses, a group that seeks to "bridge the gap between the scientific and religious worlds." Mitelman pointed out that Beresheet was not the first example of religious expression in the space, highlighting the fact that American astronaut Buzz Aldrin, a Presbyterian, celebrated Christian communion on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission. This is not even the first time that the Book of Genesis is in orbit: the Jewish astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman read Genesis on a roll of the Torah while it was not the first time that the Book of Genesis is in orbit: he was aboard the Columbia Space Shuttle in 1996, and the National Cathedral in Washington recently commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 8 astronauts. read the first few verses of the book as they tour the globe.

In fact, the first time that a complete scripture was posed on the lunar surface, it was in 1971, when astronaut Edgar Mitchell presented microfilmed copies of the Bible of the King James on Apollo 14.

Mitelman said that such religious expressions not only provide a glimpse of humanity on Earth, but also use the power of religious language to capture the impressive nature of space travel.

"At best, religion gives us a sense of humility, wonder, appreciation, and it gives us the language we would not have otherwise," said Mitelman, who is ordained in the Jewish reform movement. "I think it's incredibly wonderful and powerful that Israelis do it through Jewish expression."

As for Friedman, he explained that when religious, like him, study science, they want to understand the "doing" of God, to explore the "beautiful order of God … and see how beautiful it is".

If all goes well, a successful coup would not only make SpaceIL the world's first privately funded lunar lander, but also allow Israel to join an elite club of just three other countries. , the United States, Russia and Russia. China.

For Friedman, the mission also has a sense of both religious and family. He is from Russia, where he claims that his father was thrown into prison during the Soviet era as part of the government's systematic targeting of Chabad-Lubavitch Jews in the region.

His father was accused of helping other Jews immigrate illegally to Israel. He then spent "10 or 15 years" in prison. Friedman did not meet him until he was six and a half years old.

At the time, many Jews in Soviet Russia were even afraid to claim their faith aloud. But a generation later, Friedman sends Jewish texts and prayers to the moon.

"It's something very special and unusual," he said.