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  #1  
Old 04-11-2019, 05:30 AM
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blackshire blackshire is offline
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Default IL Moon landing/FH launch (links)

Hello All,

Two countdowns are underway. In less than 13 hours (see mission status: http://live.spaceil.com/ , from http://www.visit.spaceil.com/ ), Israel's privately-developed Moon lander, Beresheet (built by SpaceIL), will--if all goes well--execute an autonomously-controlled lunar landing (LIVE coverage begins *here* http://www.visit.spaceil.com/ in 7 hours!). This small flyby/orbiter/lander spacecraft (Beresheet has done all three things; see the videos in the links provided above) is being considered as a low-cost, basic carrier vehicle for future Israeli and international (including U.S.) lunar missions, and possibly for asteroid missions as well. The Beresheet lander design is capable of carrying small rovers, a surface sampler arm, "place-able" surface instrument packages, etc. (one such device could be a simple alpha particle back-scattering surface composition instrument, similar to the ones carried aboard some of the U.S. Surveyor lunar landers before the Apollo landings). Also:

The first operational launch of SpaceX's triple-barreled Falcon Heavy launch vehicle (live coverage is available *here* https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/04/...unch-wednesday/ , among other sources), carrying the Arabsat 6A communications satellite, is currently scheduled--weather permitting--to lift off later today (Thursday, April 11) at 6:35 PM EDT (2235 GMT), and:

The upgraded (producing 10% more thrust, using standard Block 5 booster cores, see: https://spaceflightnow.com/2019/04/...mercial-launch/ ), strengthened vehicle is planned to land its two outer boosters back at the Cape, while the center booster will aim for a downrange landing on the drone ship, "Of Course I Still Love You." Arabsat 6A itself, built by Lockheed Martin, is an innovative spacecraft, using large unrolling solar arrays (with an aggregate power output of 20,000 watts), and employing four gimbaled arcjet thrusters for maintaining its geostationary orbit.
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Old 04-11-2019, 08:43 AM
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Cool. China brags about landing on the "dark" side of the moon, with the full force of the world's 2nd largest economy to fund it 50 years after the USA walked on the moon. Israel is a tiny country that probably worries more about self preservation than lunar exploration. Out of that country, a little non-profit organization might very well stick a landing on the moon on the first try.
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Old 04-11-2019, 01:37 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tbzep
Cool. China brags about landing on the "dark" side of the moon, with the full force of the world's 2nd largest economy to fund it 50 years after the USA walked on the moon. Israel is a tiny country that probably worries more about self preservation than lunar exploration. Out of that country, a little non-profit organization might very well stick a landing on the moon on the first try.
The live coverage (here: http://www.visit.spaceil.com/ ) begins in less than ten minutes--the "countdown to 'on-air' timer" is running! Also:

My impression--although it may be wrong--was that it was our news media that kept referring to China's Chang'e 4 lander (carrying the Yutu 2 rover) as having landed "on the dark side of the Moon" (only Pink Floyd would have been pleased by that :-) ); I only heard one or two news outlets properly calling it the "far side of the Moon," and only some time ^after^ its landing. (Even virtually all of the reports that included pictures and/or video of the vehicle approaching--or sitting on or rolling across, after landing--the brightly-sunlit Moonscape--called it the "dark side of the Moon" [if that were true, the landscape would have been illuminated by floodlights on the lander and/or the rover, which clearly wasn't the case :-) ].) Also:

From what I have read, watched, and listened to, Israel (and not just SpaceIL, but also IAI--Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd.--and ISA--the Israel Space Agency) is interested in becoming a major player in deep space operations. Part of the reason is that improved, miniaturized technologies have made small yet highly-capable space probes cheaper, and such small spacecraft can--like Beresheet itself--fly cheaply, as secondary "hitch-hiker" or "piggy-back" payloads, and:

Israel has also been launching its own Ofek ("Horizon") satellites on its own (Shavit, Shavit-1, and Shavit-2 ["Comet" series]) launch vehicles for over thirty years (and other Israeli satellites have--and still do--fly aboard other countries' launch vehicles, as both dedicated and secondary payloads). Being a "Can-do" society with ample near-Earth spaceflight experience--they've always had to be thus in order to survive and thrive, even in Biblical times--deep space exploration is now within Israel's budgetary and industrial capabilities. They also constantly seek opportunities for export and collaborative ventures, and supplying Beresheet-type flyby/orbiter/lander spacecraft as standard instrument and rover carriers for lunar and asteroid missions (including for assaying mineral and volatile resources for later mining) would be a lucrative high-technology industry and business opportunity for Israel.
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Old 04-11-2019, 01:54 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tbzep
Cool. China brags about landing on the "dark" side of the moon, with the full force of the world's 2nd largest economy to fund it 50 years after the USA walked on the moon. Israel is a tiny country that probably worries more about self preservation than lunar exploration. Out of that country, a little non-profit organization might very well stick a landing on the moon on the first try.
The Beresheet Mission Control personnel are taking their places at their consoles http://www.visit.spaceil.com/ - "May the meshuggenehs be with them!" (That's a Yiddish "reverse-sounding" blessing that is sort of like "Break a leg!" in theater work; in this application, it's like saying, "May the Force be with you!" :-) )
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http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
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Old 04-11-2019, 02:12 PM
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An English update just now said that Beresheet will land in about 21 minutes (they're about to orient the lander for descent). Altitude is 25 km, and the landing site is about 850 km away (because, as with the Apollo LEMs, they're performing a powered descent from the lunar orbit). Retrofire--if the lander decides that all is well--will occur momentarily (UPDATE: Braking has now started!).
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http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
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Old 04-11-2019, 02:16 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by blackshire
An English update just now said that Beresheet will land in about 21 minutes (they're about to orient the lander for descent). Altitude is 25 km, and the landing site is about 850 km away (because, as with the Apollo LEMs, they're performing a powered descent from the lunar orbit). Retrofire--if the lander decides that all is well--will occur momentarily (UPDATE: Braking has now started!).
The updating text is in English (but surprisingly, I can make out enough of the Hebrew commentary to follow what's happening; they have quite a few technical loan-words from English). Also, they're interspersing brief English-language verbal updates. Descent looks good so far...
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http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
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Old 04-11-2019, 02:20 PM
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They've temporarily lost communication--hopefully that will change momentarily...

Quote:
Originally Posted by blackshire
The updating text is in English (but surprisingly, I can make out enough of the Hebrew commentary to follow what's happening; they have quite a few technical loan-words from English). Also, they're interspersing brief English-language verbal updates. Descent looks good so far...
Altitude now about 22 km, and Beresheet just returned a "selfie" picture, looking past its landing gear at the Moon, directly below.
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http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
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Old 04-11-2019, 02:28 PM
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Sadly, I guess we now have a new Jewish crater on the moon.
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Old 04-11-2019, 02:29 PM
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Quote:
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Sadly, I guess we now have a new Jewish crater on the moon.

Heh. Was that Bibi that was talking there for a bit?
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Old 04-11-2019, 02:31 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by blackshire
They've temporarily lost communication--hopefully that will change momentarily...

Altitude now about 22 km, and Beresheet just returned a "selfie" picture, looking past its landing gear at the Moon, directly below.
Beresheet didn't make it, unfortunately (but that was a good first attempt!)--a friend of mine just called, so I'll have to get the details later--meanwhile, Falcon Heavy should--weather permitting--launch at 6:35 PM EDT today!
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Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
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http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
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