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According to www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6G6Dm2zq5s , they've found (so far) that: Launched on February 21 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceIL's unmanned, privately-funded "Beresheet" spacecraft attempted a historic lunar landing! Unfortunately in the last moments, there were issues with the main engine and they lost communications with the spacecraft, which impacted the Moon. It is still a great achievement to successfully orbit the Moon! "If at first you don't succeed, you try again." - Benjamin Netanyahu Intro music: CO.AG - The Earth in 100 Years Intro video courtesy efeuEntertainment using Space Engine Outro music: CO.AG - Anything is Possible Outro video clips courtesy NASA and SpaceX If you enjoy space content, feel free to like this video and subscribe to Raw Space. If you don't want to miss future videos and events, click the Notifications bell. If you'd like to show your support and enable even better content, contribution options include: Rawlmart (merch store): https://teespring.com/stores/rawspace Patreon: https://patreon.com/RawSpace PayPal: https://paypal.me/RawSpaceVideos
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Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see: 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 All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com. NAR #54895 SR |
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It's possible that SpaceIL built a back-up lander, or at least a thermal test model that could be upgraded to flight status (JPL did that with Mariner 10; after its mission to Venus and Mercury was completed, the thermal test model was upgraded to flight-like [and possibly flight] status, so that it could be displayed as Mariner 10 in the National Air and Space Museum, see: https://airandspace.si.edu/collecti...10-flight-spare ), and: Since Beresheet was able to fly as a secondary payload on a geosynchronous communications satellite mission, arranging for a flight for Beresheet 2 wouldn't be expensive. Plus, Israel (and others) see the new mini-lander (which could also land on asteroids, not just the Moon) as a potential standard low-cost spacecraft bus, which could carry instrument packages, small rovers, and/or surface sampler equipment to the Moon and asteroids. (With twice the solar cell area--two or four deployable solar panels would do the trick--the Beresheet lander could also operate around and on the Martian moons [and judging by the size of the failed Russian Phobos-Grunt sample return probe's Earth-return stage, the Beresheet lander could easily accommodate such a stage].) As well: This first mission, despite its disappointing premature ending, demonstrated multiple capabilities that Israel has mastered. These include accurate deep space navigation and non-Hohmann, minimum-energy transfer trajectories (achieved by making several small-impulse burns--Oberth effect maneuvers--at the perigee of the geosynchronous transfer orbit, as ISRO did with their recent Mangalyaan Mars Orbiter, and ISAS--now part of JAXA--did with their Hiten/Hagoromo communications relay & lunar orbiter combination spacecraft [Hiten later also orbited the Moon by utilizing weak stability boundary--WSB--navigation techniques that required almost no propellant]). Plus: Israel also demonstrated the abilities to achieve accurate lunar flybys, accurate lunar orbit insertion (and subsequent orbit modifications, as desired), and an accurate powered descent trajectory from lunar orbit, which--today--wasn't able to be completed down to touchdown. But the Soviets' first lunar soft-landing attempt didn't succeed either (it took them five times, from Luna 4 to Luna 9), and the first successful U.S. soft landing--with Surveyor 1 (Surveyor 2 impacted after tumbling out of control during the attempted mid-course correction burn, when one of its three vernier thrusters failed to ignite)--stunned the JPL flight directors as having been a lucky fluke (NASA would have been satisfied if Surveyor 1 had merely detected the Moon with its radar at 60 miles altitude, and then started the terminal descent procedure). I think Beresheet will ultimately triumph, and more quickly than the Lunas did.
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Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see: 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 All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com. NAR #54895 SR |
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