Israelis not giving up on the moon after crash landing

LONDON — What was hoped to be a first not only for Israelis but also for the private exploration of space ended last week when the Beresheet space craft dreamed up in a bar in Tel Aviv, crash-landed on the moon. It was not the soft landing they were hoping for, but they did get the $1m Google XPRIZE Inaugural Moonshot Award. You have to say something about Israeli chutzpah, not only for the scientists who undertook the moon shot, but also for its South African-born backer, Morris Kahn who announced that the crash or "kinetic disassembly", now there's a euphemism, has not put the scientists off further exploration. They are going to try again to land Beresheet 2.0 on the moon. The founder of the Google Lunar XPRIZE, Peter Diamondis was full of praise and encouragement in a blog on his website saying space travel and failure goes hand-in-hand and he welcomes the Israelis attitude of trying again.- Linda van Tilburg

By Thulasizwe Sithole

Google XPRIZE announced a $30m award in September 2007 for the first private team who could build a space vehicle that could not only fly to the moon, but land successfully as well.  To win the prize the rover had to be able to travel for 500 metres and send back photos and videos.

The idea behind the prize was to "inspire a next generation of scientists, engineers and innovators to take moonshots." Google was also looking for space entrepreneurs to develop "long-term business models around lunar transportation." The deadline for the big prize of $30m was not claimed by the deadline of 31 March 2018.

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