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NASA has signed an agreement with the Israeli Space Agency and SpaceIL, an Israeli non-profit organization, to collaborate on the unmanned lunar mission of the Jewish state to be launched in Cape Canaveral next year.
The landing would result in eight years of collaboration on the $ 88 million project. If it succeeds, Israel will become the fourth country to reach the rocky satellite of the Earth. The journey of the probe on the moon will last about two months. The Israeli craft will be the smallest to land on the moon, weighing only 1.322 pounds.
Upon landing, the spacecraft plans to take pictures and video of the landing site while measuring the magnetic field of the moon as part of a scientific experiment at the Weizmann Institute.
According to the new agreement announced Wednesday, NASA will provide a network of laser retroreflectors to facilitate ground tracking and communication in missions. ISA and SpaceIL will share data with the US Space Agency from the SpaceIL lunar magnetometer installed aboard the spacecraft.
In addition, the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will attempt to take scientific measurements of the SpaceIL landing gear landing on the moon.
"I am delighted to extend the progress of the commercial cooperation that we have achieved in low Earth orbit with the lunar environment with this new agreement with the Israeli Space Agency and SpaceIL," said L & # 's NASA Director Jim Bridenstine. "Innovative partnerships like this one will be essential to go to the moon and create new opportunities."
In an article on Facebook, Ido Antebi, CEO of SpaceIL, said it was a "great honor" to collaborate with NASA and that he hoped that this upcoming mission would result in more "space missions and more." other technological challenges ".
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