SpaceIL announces its return to the moon with Beresheet 2

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A few days after SpaceIL 's Beresheet lander crashed on the Moon, the ASBL announced plans to build a second spacecraft within two to three years.

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Just three days later SpaceILThe Beresheet lander crashed on the moon, the non-profit organization announced plans to build and launch a second spacecraft, Beresheet 2, within two or three years.

"We will build a new spaceship; we are going to place it on the Moon and we are going to finish the mission ", SpaceIL President and funder Morris Kahn said in a tweet April 14th. He has committed to fund the second mission, for which work will begin as soon as an investigation into the cause of the failure of the April 11 landing will be completed.

In a statement dated April 17, the non-profit organization said a preliminary investigation indicated that a manual control entered into Beresheet's computer had triggered a chain reaction that had shut down the main engine of the company. spacecraft. Although the mission engineers were able to restart the engine via a computer command, at that time, the spacecraft was traveling too fast to avoid any impact on the Moon.

Yonatan Winetraub, SpaceILThe co-founder, said Insider Spaceflight the association and its trading partner, Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI), considers the first mission as a success despite its less than ideal end.

"We have reached the moon. This is the most important message here, "said Winetraub. "From a technological point of view, it was a great success. We did it with less than $ 100 million, less than any other mission on the moon, and were the first privately funded organization to try to do it. "

The critical error occurred in the last 10 kilometers of the mission just before the scheduled landing, Winetraub said.

In Israel, the February 22 launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and the April 11 landing attempt were broadcast on all major media outlets. The children stayed awake late to watch both events and many were inspired by the pursuit of spaceflight and engineering, a phenomenon much like the Apollo effect in the United States in the 1960s and early 1990s. 1970, said Winetraub.

NASA instrument aboard the lander, the Network of laser retroreflectors (LRA) designed as a target for laser tracking, could have survived the accident and, if necessary, remain usable. The space agency plans to use its Moon recognition orbiter (RSO) to locate the instrument by sending laser beams. All that struck the LRA should rebound, revealing its presence and location.

Immediately after the Beresheet crash on the lunar surface, many social media began to request a second mission. SpaceIL It must first complete its investigation to determine the root causes of the error and correct it, which will become a key part of the design of the new spacecraft, said Winetraub.

The ASBL plans to place an additional charge on Beresheet 2.

One of the main reasons why Beresheet is considered a success is that it was the first to use small spacecraft at a lower cost. He also showed that spacecraft can use the gravity of the Earth and the Moon as a source of free energy, which significantly reduces the fuel costs of rockets.

Known as the moon transport system cyclerBuzz Aldrin, the second person to walk on the moon, has developed this method of using elongated Earth orbits to capture energy via gravity to reach the orbit of the moon and capture it. thesis at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The design of Beresheet already influences future commercial space flights. OHB, the German-based technology company that has contracted with IAI to build Beresheet, plans to propose a design similar to that of the satellite European Space Agency (ESA) for future missions.

"This shows that this design is truly innovative and that it is possible to do much more science using smaller missions than larger missions," Winetraub said.

the XPRIZE Foundation premium Moonshot Award from $ 1 million to SpaceIL and expressed the hope that the funds will be used as seed money for Beresheet 2, "a second attempt to fulfill the mission".

Tagged: Space Space Moon Space Shuttle 2 Beresheet