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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The Israeli team with the backing of Jewish philanthropists including South-African born Morris Kahn threw their weight behind the project and raised $100m between SpaceIL and the state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries ltd.
The probe which blasted into space on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket managed to take two selfies on its six week journey from the Earth to the moon. The last moments just a kilometre from the surface before it crashed on the surface of the moon.
While acknowledging that the Israeli mission did not have a “soft landing”, Diamandis believes the mission has been accomplished and says that the three young entrepreneurs who set out to land a craft on the moon with zero funding and no real experience should be regarded as heroes.
He has also payed homage to Israeli billionaire, Morris Kahn who was born in Benoni for the $50m he contributed to the mission and says it has inspired a generation of Israeli children. The Beresheet spacecraft has made history by:
- “Being the first private company to orbit the Moon and touch the Moon’s surface
- Making Israel the seventh nation (behind the U.S., Russia, China, Japan, the European Space Agency, and India) to orbit the Moon
- The fourth country to attempt a soft landing on the Moon, and the fourth country to touch the Moon’s surface.”
Diamandis says he and the CEO of XPRIZE, Anousheh Ansari have decided to award the Israelis the $1m Google Moonshot Award as an encouragement to continue their second craft, Beresheet 2.0.
The XPRIZE founders say that space exploration is hard and has a very important lesson, “if at first you don’t succeed…try, try again.” It took 10 attempts between the US and Russia for the first manmade probe to reach the Moon’s surface. In a similar vein, Elon Musk managed to launch the Falcon 1 rocket only on its fourth attempt.
The Israelis are not giving up on their dream, Kahn of SPACIL announced that there were going to try again.
 “… In light of all of the support that I’ve got, from all over the world, and the wonderful messages of support and encouragement and excitement, I’ve decided that we are going to actually establish Beresheet Shtaim [Beresheet 2].
We are going to actually [build] a new spacecraft, we’re going to put it on the moon, and we’re going to complete the mission…” – Morris Kahn.
Diamandis believes that the effort by the Israelis has “propelled the private space industry into a new era” and he “can’t wait to see Beresheet 2.0 land on the Moon.”
