Israeli probe leads to the moon a scientist from the USSR who does not believe in evolution
Israeli probe "Bereshit" flies to the moon. The first private lunar module completed the next maneuver to enter the satellite orbit and, according to forecasts, should be moored on April 11.
On Monday morning, the spacecraft made another maneuver in the direction of the moon. The Bereshit engines were activated for 72 seconds: the probe adjusted its course to the Earth satellite. Right now, ground control teams are checking if the probe will require additional maneuvers.
Maneuver t. The "capture of the moon" will take place on Thursday, April 4. During it, the Israeli probe will be trapped in the gravitational pull of a celestial body, after which it will land on its surface.
On Monday, Bereshit flew for the last time near Earth, approximately 1600 kilometers in elliptical orbit. In the course of his approach, he made a frame of the globe
Bereshit was launched from the Florida cosmodrome 22 in February; its launch vehicle was the Space X Falcon 9 of the company Space X Ilona Mask. The lunar probe used a nonstandard scheme of sending to the satellite - it, in order to save fuel and gain the necessary speed, approaches the Earth satellite in an elliptical orbit. It takes more time, but the process itself is less expensive in terms of the use of fuel resources.
The flight did not always go smoothly: the second maneuver of the device, scheduled for February 26 (the first was 24), failed to make the probe. However, engineers and programmers were able to fix the problem, after which the spacecraft was operating normally.
According to the forecast, after pruning, the probe will make one jump over the surface and measure the weak magnetic fields of the moon with a special device. Professor Oded Aronson of the Weizmann Institute, in collaboration with the UCLA and NASA in America, leads the research. The data will be transmitted to the mission control center of the American Aerospace Agency, after which the probe will work for a maximum of a couple of days and shut down: to save weight, it was deprived of thermal insulation.
The peculiarity of "Bereshit" is that the probe does not set itself overly ambitious targets. A private project, a former participant in the Google Lunar X PRIZE initiative, managed to raise more than 90 a million dollars to launch. State participation was less than 3%. If the unit safely reaches the moon, then Israel will become the fourth country to successfully land on Earth’s satellite - and the first to send a private mission there.
In addition, the Israelis initially stated that the main purpose of the flight was not exploratory.
- Alexander Fridman, the chief systems engineer of the project, said in an interview with the Israeli radio station KAN RECA. Friedman came from the USSR, he was 68 years old, he came to Israel in 1970, in the wake of the repatriation of Jews from the Soviet Union. His father was a refusal, and belonged to the "Chabad" [intra-Jewish religious movement, also called Lubavich Hasidism - ed.].
Friedman is also religious, part of his faith carries with him the apparatus, for which he is responsible: on board the "Bereshit" is a flash drive with Jewish religious texts, in particular - with the Old Testament.
Alexander Fridman is a graduate of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In the army, Friedman developed missiles, retired with the rank of captain, was one of the first participants in the Israeli space program to launch the Ofek satellite in 1988 year. The system engineer of the project is, in fact, a bright quintessence of contradictions and images of the Israeli society itself: according to the website of the Lyubavich Hasidim moshiach.ru, the scientist who sent the device to the Moon does not believe in evolution for religious reasons.
In essence, with its educational project, Israel wants to achieve two goals. First, it is so-called. “The Apollo Effect” - the flight and landing of American astronauts on the Apollo 11 spacecraft dramatically increased the interest of US students and students in the exact and natural sciences.
With the launch of Bereshit, Israel hopes to captivate a new generation, and instead of lawyers and managers, get more engineers, technicians and programmers. To this end, the team of the SpaceIl Foundation regularly traveled to schools, attracted student groups to work on the project, and actively covered its activities.
Google has already said that despite the fact that the Google Lunar X PRIZE competition did not take place (the winner should have received 20 million dollars within its framework), the Bereshit team would receive 1 million dollars in case of reaching the satellite surface.
On Monday morning, the spacecraft made another maneuver in the direction of the moon. The Bereshit engines were activated for 72 seconds: the probe adjusted its course to the Earth satellite. Right now, ground control teams are checking if the probe will require additional maneuvers.
Maneuver t. The "capture of the moon" will take place on Thursday, April 4. During it, the Israeli probe will be trapped in the gravitational pull of a celestial body, after which it will land on its surface.
On Monday, Bereshit flew for the last time near Earth, approximately 1600 kilometers in elliptical orbit. In the course of his approach, he made a frame of the globe
Bereshit was launched from the Florida cosmodrome 22 in February; its launch vehicle was the Space X Falcon 9 of the company Space X Ilona Mask. The lunar probe used a nonstandard scheme of sending to the satellite - it, in order to save fuel and gain the necessary speed, approaches the Earth satellite in an elliptical orbit. It takes more time, but the process itself is less expensive in terms of the use of fuel resources.
The flight did not always go smoothly: the second maneuver of the device, scheduled for February 26 (the first was 24), failed to make the probe. However, engineers and programmers were able to fix the problem, after which the spacecraft was operating normally.
According to the forecast, after pruning, the probe will make one jump over the surface and measure the weak magnetic fields of the moon with a special device. Professor Oded Aronson of the Weizmann Institute, in collaboration with the UCLA and NASA in America, leads the research. The data will be transmitted to the mission control center of the American Aerospace Agency, after which the probe will work for a maximum of a couple of days and shut down: to save weight, it was deprived of thermal insulation.
The peculiarity of "Bereshit" is that the probe does not set itself overly ambitious targets. A private project, a former participant in the Google Lunar X PRIZE initiative, managed to raise more than 90 a million dollars to launch. State participation was less than 3%. If the unit safely reaches the moon, then Israel will become the fourth country to successfully land on Earth’s satellite - and the first to send a private mission there.
In addition, the Israelis initially stated that the main purpose of the flight was not exploratory.
Our main mission is to arouse interest among schoolchildren in the study of exact sciences, such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, and others.
- Alexander Fridman, the chief systems engineer of the project, said in an interview with the Israeli radio station KAN RECA. Friedman came from the USSR, he was 68 years old, he came to Israel in 1970, in the wake of the repatriation of Jews from the Soviet Union. His father was a refusal, and belonged to the "Chabad" [intra-Jewish religious movement, also called Lubavich Hasidism - ed.].
Friedman is also religious, part of his faith carries with him the apparatus, for which he is responsible: on board the "Bereshit" is a flash drive with Jewish religious texts, in particular - with the Old Testament.
Alexander Fridman is a graduate of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In the army, Friedman developed missiles, retired with the rank of captain, was one of the first participants in the Israeli space program to launch the Ofek satellite in 1988 year. The system engineer of the project is, in fact, a bright quintessence of contradictions and images of the Israeli society itself: according to the website of the Lyubavich Hasidim moshiach.ru, the scientist who sent the device to the Moon does not believe in evolution for religious reasons.
In essence, with its educational project, Israel wants to achieve two goals. First, it is so-called. “The Apollo Effect” - the flight and landing of American astronauts on the Apollo 11 spacecraft dramatically increased the interest of US students and students in the exact and natural sciences.
With the launch of Bereshit, Israel hopes to captivate a new generation, and instead of lawyers and managers, get more engineers, technicians and programmers. To this end, the team of the SpaceIl Foundation regularly traveled to schools, attracted student groups to work on the project, and actively covered its activities.
Google has already said that despite the fact that the Google Lunar X PRIZE competition did not take place (the winner should have received 20 million dollars within its framework), the Bereshit team would receive 1 million dollars in case of reaching the satellite surface.
- Evgeny Kamenetsky
- SpaceIL
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