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The film, Mission Budget on the Moon, is due to air on April 23 at 9 pm on National Geographic. After eight years of development, Beresheet – which means Genesis in Hebrew – was launched on Friday, Jan. 22 in Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket by Elon Musk. false, with the result that it was completely destroyed while it was sinking into the lunar surface.
Researchers working on the documentary said that there was still no full explanation on the cause of the catastrophic failure.
Initial indications suggested that a telemetry error had resulted in an overly fast approach to the building, exacerbated by engine failure / communication.
Describing this as a "snowball of small mistakes", they suggested that it was "very difficult to report a thing" that had derailed the mission.
A spokesman added: "The first signs of trouble occurred around 19:21 UTC, when flight controllers reported that one of Beresheet's inertial measurement units had been reset, temporarily disrupting the telemetry flow. .
"We did not know if this was related to the engine problem that ultimately condemned the spacecraft.
"About a minute later, a telemetry indicator showing Beresheet speed turned red, indicating a higher vertical approach speed than expected of 74.9 meters per second.
"Shortly after, Beresheet's engine lights blinked and a mission official announced that there was a problem with the spacecraft's main engine.
"The main machine came back online, but at that time, the altitude of the spacecraft was only 149 meters, while its vertical speed was still 134 meters per second and its speed horizontal was 947 meters per second.
"At that time, all shuttle telemetry was stopped and ground observers reported a signal loss at 19:23."
The scientists hoped to put the magnetometer, the digital time capsule and the Beresheet laser retroreflector on the Moon, as well as a Bible.
A time capsule was also on board the lander – including a photo of Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon, who died on the space shuttle Columbia in 2003 – and a lunar library containing 30 million pages on a mission disk. American Arch Mission. Foundation.
Ramon's widow, Rona, who was a big supporter of Beresheet, died of cancer in December.
Doron Opher, general manager of Israel Aerospace Industries' space division, said: "It appears that the failure of our inertial measurement unit has provoked a series of events in the spacecraft avionics that have engines and made us lose the mission. "
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was present for what the organizers were hoping to be a party, said, "If you fail in the beginning, try again."
The budget mission on the moon is broadcast on National Geographic on Tuesday, April 23 at 9 pm.
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