LONDON — While the big world powers have been in a space race since the late 1950s, a private Israeli company is quietly about to become the fourth nation to land on the moon. If it succeeds to manoeuvre a so-called hard landing, it will mark a major milestone in the success of private enterprise in space exploration. The Beresheet robot – Hebrew for Genesis – was blasted into space by one of Elon Musk’s Space X rockets. What inspired the scientists was a $30m prize sponsored by Google given to a team who could reach the moon by 31 March 2018. When nobody won that, the Israeili scientists who hatched up the idea in a bar decided to go ahead and find sponsorship of $100m, which is a fraction of what the big nations invest. If they do manage to land on the moon, they can claim $1m prize from Google’s XPRIZE Foundation for The Inaugural Moonshot Award. One of the philanthropists behind this effort is South African born Morris Kahn, who was born in Benoni. Through his company Coral World, the billionaire established several marine parks around the world. – Linda van Tilburg
By Thulasizwe Sithole
Up to now only the superpowers have landed on the moon. The explorations by the Soviets, the Americans and more recently the Chinese who managed to land on the unexplored dark side of the moon with their Chang-e spacecraft were all state-funded. The attempt by a start-up to attempt the same, came about when a group of scientist got together in a Tel Aviv bar. It grew into a $100m joint venture between SpaceIL and state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. to land the first Israel spacecraft on the moon.
Several Jewish philantrophists including casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and SpaceIL’s president Morris Kahn threw their weight behind the project. “This is the first mission of a small country to the moon,” and a non-governmental effort at that, SpaceIL Chief Executive Officer Ido Anteby told Bloomberg. “The whole world is watching because it’s clear to everyone that it opens a new horizon in commercial launches to the moon.”
The probe ended its ride on one of Elon Musk’s SpaceX rockets after 38 minutes and after several orbits is expected to land on the near side of the moon in the Sea of Tranquility on Thursday 11 April.
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To save money, the Beresheet does not have the usual backup system for power and communications that are standard on most other spacecraft. If any of the systems fail, it would be rendered useless. The general manager of IAI’s space division Ophor Doron told Bloomberg that Chutzpah would probably have been a better name for Beresheet. “How much chutzpah is it to get to the moon with $100m?” The Beresheet vehicle weighs only 160 kilograms, making it the smallest ever to land on the moon and has a time capsule carrying information about Israel and the Jewish people as well as a Bible. The exposure of the sun means it will join the remains of the craft left behind by Apollo missions to the moon.
The Google Lunar X Prize of $30m expired when no team made an attempt to reach the moon by the deadline of 31 March 2018. XPRIZE founder and chairman, Peter Diamandis said at the time that a moonshot was hard and although they did expect a winner they realised that fundraising and technical and regulatory challenges meant that the grand prize went unclaimed. He was ecstatic that the Israeli scientists did not give up on their dream. They will now receive a $1m prize from the XPRIZE Foundation for The Inaugural Moonshot Award from Peter Diamandis.
