Photo: SpaceIL via Twitter
On February 21, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket took off, carrying with it to space the Beresheet, the world’s first ever private Moon lander to be sent in the general direction of our satellite. Now, as it approaches the Moon, the first images of what Beresheet is seeing have been released.
Beresheet’s trip to the Moon was not your usual straight-to-the-point affair, thus the long time it took it to get there. The machine first circled Earth several times, then departed the neighborhood to enter a few more spins, this time around the Moon.
On April 4, Beresheet entered lunar orbit, targeting an actual landing for April 11, in the Mare Serenitatis region in the Moon’s northern hemisphere.
Until it gets to that point, the lander sent back a few photos of our satellite, showing the seldom seen dark side of the Moon. One of the photos shows the Moon with the Earth in the background, while the rest just the heavily cratered surface of the rock.
"#Beresheet is in an excellent orbit! during the critical maneuver yesterday Beresheet took some amazing photos of the far side of the #Moon!” said SpaceIL in a tweet when the photos were released.
As soon as the images were made public, comments on the company’s Twitter account contained the inevitable question “Any sign of life down there?” SpaceIL quickly replied “We are legally prohibited from commenting on this subject.”
The size of a dishwasher, the Israeli lander will be used as a platform for several experiments on the Moon, including ones meant to reveal Lunar magnetism. It’s landing place was chosen precisely because of its magnetic anomalies.
SpaceIL was a competitor in Google’s Lunar X-Prize competition. Together with four other teams - Moon Express, Synergy Moon, Teamindus, and Hakuto – SpaceIL raced to develop low-cost methods of robotic space exploration.
On April 4, Beresheet entered lunar orbit, targeting an actual landing for April 11, in the Mare Serenitatis region in the Moon’s northern hemisphere.
Until it gets to that point, the lander sent back a few photos of our satellite, showing the seldom seen dark side of the Moon. One of the photos shows the Moon with the Earth in the background, while the rest just the heavily cratered surface of the rock.
"#Beresheet is in an excellent orbit! during the critical maneuver yesterday Beresheet took some amazing photos of the far side of the #Moon!” said SpaceIL in a tweet when the photos were released.
As soon as the images were made public, comments on the company’s Twitter account contained the inevitable question “Any sign of life down there?” SpaceIL quickly replied “We are legally prohibited from commenting on this subject.”
The size of a dishwasher, the Israeli lander will be used as a platform for several experiments on the Moon, including ones meant to reveal Lunar magnetism. It’s landing place was chosen precisely because of its magnetic anomalies.
SpaceIL was a competitor in Google’s Lunar X-Prize competition. Together with four other teams - Moon Express, Synergy Moon, Teamindus, and Hakuto – SpaceIL raced to develop low-cost methods of robotic space exploration.
First successful maneuver around the #moon by SpaceIL and IAI. #Beresheet's engine operated for 271 seconds and burned 55 kg fuel, while reducing the Apolune from 10,400 km to 750 km from the moon. New photos from 550 km & 2500 km from the far side of the moon. #IsraeltotheMoon pic.twitter.com/6N8yEPSDeE
— Israel To The Moon (@TeamSpaceIL) 7 aprilie 2019
Google News