It was still an act of imagination deserving of applause.
1
Maybe it is not a fair comparison, but to me this highlights what an incredible achievement the Apollo program was. Using utterly primitive technologies and materials, it was not mere robots were that were landed on the moon, but living, breathing humans. On the last lunar mission, Apollo 16, humans stayed for 3 days. The first landing was put together in all of 7 years following Kennedy's famous 1962 speech. At the time, the US had about 10 hours of human spaceflight experience.
Likewise, NASA's numerous successful landing on Mars, dating back to 1976 are also incredible technological achievements, yet to be replicated by any other organization.
And it is worth mentioning that our leadership and achievement in space exploration, as in many other realms of science and technology, can only continue if we believe in science and fund research.
7
Space is hard. They don’t call it a moonshot for nothing! They made an amazing effort, for a fraction of the price of previous moon missions. Kol hakavod, SpaceIL! They still accomplished lunar orbit, itself an amazing achievement. I hope that they will try again.
While they didn’t achieve a soft landing, they advanced our whole species towards becoming a true spacefaring race, and the world is proud of their achievement!
54
@DT Space is not hard, now string theory is hard.
4
As an engineer, I've always held that rocket science is easy; it's rocket engineering that's hard.
59
@Sue. As a physicist, I agree totally. Real simple Newtonian physics with no frills, but lots and lots of engineering detail. Also, counter to what the PM said, I generally assume that if at first you don’t succeed, you probably don’t really know what you’re doing. To be fair, despite the ICBM beginnings in the 1950, and all that came later, ordering up a good reliable restartable small engine still is chancy due to very low production, and with low payload weight constraints, not much chance of over-design. Can’t check user reviews on Amazon.
25
@Marat1784
That is said that it is more remarkable how private company as SpaseX made the technological success in US reliable rockets. Different capacity, vertical return to the lunch pod, and reusable rockets.I agree that it was of two countries science and industries applied. But it is great to have dots finally connected.
4
A photo released of the first photographed black hole, the SpaceIL landing attempt, and a return to space of the Falcon Heavy all in the same week. A generation from now we may look back on this week as the 21st Century’s Sputnik moment, when an entire generation of young people were inspired by big, daring, exciting things never tried before.
And if Uber (aka “an Unlicensed but more convenient taxi”) and Lyft are worth $150B, we can spend 1/1500th of that to advance the frontiers for mankind.
May the world never run out of big, inspiring ideas.
56
Sure. Right after we finish feeding everybody.
3
Too bad. Now we will never know the outline of the map of Israel that was to be deposited on the moon. It would have been enlightening to know the territorial ambitions of that nation for the coming years.
So they have added more garbage to the moon. I just read somewhere that the US is at least considering going back for the human waste our missions have left there. About time. Maybe in another 50 years Israel will send someone to clean up their trash? To those who claim this is irrelevant: look what we have done to this planet and listen to those now talking about colonizing new planets so we have somewhere to go when this one becomes unlivable. The read Bill Peet's children's book "The Wump World".
1
Israel, a sovereign nation of merely 7 million made it to the moon. The landing left a strong impact on anyone who wishes to stand in awe of the scientific efforts of this small and brilliant nation.
4
Started as a response to a contest, the goal was achieved 100%. Israeli space exploration took a massive step forward and will build upon this you'll see!
Congratulations on making it so far. All the negative comments about space junk, for this mission, are nonsense. The moon is 38 million sq. km., about 59 times the size of France. This spaceship weighed 150 kg (330 lb) and is resting entirely on the lunar surface, not orbiting around waiting to smash into things. Raising this as a "concern" -- that we see repeated in so many of these comments -- shows nitpicking that, I suspect, has more to do with Israel (or, more accurately, the Jews who make up the majority there) and less to do with any legitimate issue.
10
Congratulations for another outstanding achievement, Start-Up Nation! That tiny Israel joined the largest nations in the world in even reaching the moon is amazing.
9
I would have much preferred to see Netanyahu’s effort crash.
13
"Small country, Big dreams" That's the first positive message I've seen about Israel in a long, long time.
OK so Israel's first attempt in space exploration ended with the failed moon landing. The first American attempts at launching rockets into space in the late 1950's and early 1960's also ended in disaster. But we learned from our mistakes and prevailed. Long story short in 1969 America successfully made it to the moon. July 2019 will mark the 50th anniversary of that monumental achievement.
I look at the Israeli effort as one small step for Israel and one giant leap for the Jews.
3
I wish I could greet the Israelis but the idea of an accident on an extraterrestrial body makes me comfortable. Wikipedia lists multiple accidents and non-disintegrative crashes on the moon, Venus, Mars, etc. as part of the US and Soviet space programs but these were competent government actors. Now, we are seeing non-competent government agencies and private enterprises reaching out to space.
Could Kickstarter funded missions supported by the very wealthy become the norm and are we going to witness anybody with serious money launch a spacecraft and these technologically immature endeavors being supported by various National Space Agencies who are desperate to have their name in some top-list?
Experts say India caused serious orbital pollution very recently when they deliberately shot their own satellite. They did their act of bravado at a solar minimum when the atmosphere was contracted and thus the aerodynamic drag required to decay their garbage was also at a minimum. Even Erdoğan of Turkey has established a space agency when they lack the engineering to perfect a medium-distance rocket let alone freedom of expression.
Space tech should be regulated just like our cars, elevators or factories. Instead of focusing on the risks of non-credible governments turning space exploration into a joyride, we now have a private industry where any aging billionaire with no heirs can fund a project and attempt to be a 'space hero' and we shall be paying for the price of their actions.
2
If Israel can crash a box into the moon, maybe they can give human rights to the people they've oppressed for over half a century.
No achievement here. Move along.
11
@Jim
Self-defense is not oppression.
4
Landing on the moon is so yesterday.
I was watching on live television when Neil Armstrong first stepped foot on the moon. That was exciting!
About the only thing interesting about this mission is the fact that it apparently was done without any taxpayer money. Who cares about the rest.
2
I am all for advances in science and exploration but one thing has niggled me a little ever since space exploration began (and I well remember the first launches from both America and Russia) and that is the issue of pollution of other environments. This is an issue that is not often if ever discussed but it is an important one. We have managed to cause great pollution on earth from the highest mountain to the bottom of the sea and we have now started on far-flung worlds. The picture included in this article is a prime example.
1
Amazing all the negativity here.
The ship had an issue all during the 6 weeks of the voyage of spontaneously needing to reboot itself - in other words, OS rebooting when various issues were encountered (such as not receiving the navigation data it was expecting) and resetting itself.
First indications are that something like this happened during the landing sequence - a sequence once started that was fully automated and couldn't be altered by ground intervention - either it was going to work or not work. So the reboot caused the engine to shutdown, and by the time it came back online the craft was moving too fast and too close to the surface to prevent a crash landing.
Hard to think this didn't have something to do with the shoestring budget involved.
But it's silly to compare this to Apollo missions. Totally different.
The lander had a science mission of measuring the moon's magnetic field. Apparently it did do some measurements on the way down and relayed them to earth before the crash. So not a total loss in terms of the science.
The project also demonstrated the feasibility of a slow, inexpensive way to get spacecraft to the moon. This is quite and accomplishment, and you can bet it will by used in the future by both Israel and others.
6
The tag line "The spacecraft’s orbit of the moon was a first for a private effort, but the landing failure highlighted the risks of fast and cheap approaches to space exploration." seems to usher in a lot of negativity. Before even the makers have studied the cause for failure, terming the failure as being the result of "fast and cheap approaches" appears to be naive and borders on 'I told you so' syndrome. Be that as it may, as we approach the 50th anniversary of the first humans to have landed on the moon, I have to doff my hat at the science and technology that was in vogue that many years ago to have actually sent a man (and many more) to the moon. Have we gone backwards insofar as technology is concerned or as the naysayers keep on saying - that the first mission was a hoax? And is that the reason that after 1972 we never went to the moon again?
1
So sad. Still, what an amazing accomplishment to get this far, on such a small budget with mostly volunteers and no government funding. Israel will figure it out and do it again, this time with a successful landing.
9
So they launch a little box towards the moon, and it crashed there.
They hitched a ride on a Falcon rocket, so i'm not sure what the excitement is about? That they built the box? They aimed it at the big thing in the sky? Or that they negotiated with a real space company and got them to launch it for them?
Thumbs up Israel. So much winning.
3
Why the snarky remarks? They actually pioneered a number of things including using minimal fuel and utilizing the moons gravitational pull.
7
Even after 50 years, conquering the moon continues to captivate the hearts and aspirations of so many. Many of the practical technologies we use today were once developed by the Apollo program where billions were invested into research and development. Perhaps the notion of going to the moon is perceived by Israelis as a platform on which to create new innovative technologies, however how about "going where no man has gone before" as to create prosperity in the form of an inexhaustible source of energy to power Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories - the dead sea Mediterranean channel. Create prosperity, then there will be peace. Then figure out how to warp time and space.
1
Having SpaceX launch the craft did reduce a significant portion of the development they would have had to design and implement, so you can’t quite compare it to full-scale projects. And it was a smart decision.
2
If it were easy it would have already been done. Mazal Tov!
6
@BWCA
I have bad news for you: it's already been done, and done better. Half a century ago.
4
The engine that failed was British-built, by Nammo in Westcott, Buckinghamshire. Hopefully they will figure out why it failed, so it doesnt happen again.
2
@E Karp
All of the credit, none of the blame... sounds about right.
1
I was working at JPL when Apollo 11 landed. If you have any experience in the aerospace industry, you can't fail to appreciate and admire what the Beresheet team accomplished with ~$100M.
That may be less in current dollars than the paint job on Apollo 11's Saturn V booster.
Well done. Looking forward to Beresheet 2.
48
@ridgeguy
Apollo 11 got to the moon safely using a computer more feeble than your phone. That's where the real achievement is. Replicating it (or attempting to, anyway) after half a century worth of technological advances is little more than a vanity project.
5
Honoring the 11th commandment pays.
@ridgeguy Shemot (Exodus) would be the logical name for #2 (and appropriate)
3
I love the audacity and brilliance that got Beresheet as far as it went. So close! The story, which I've followed for quite a while, got me interested in space again. I really hope there IS a Beresheet 2.0.
22
Moon 1 Israel 0
The Moon won this time.
But what an incredible feat by Israel - to come that close - 13 miles - one of only 4 nations to achieve this feat. That is after traveling 238,855 miles.
The story says - Israel may attempt again, I hope so.
After all, we crashed and burned many on Mars - but now, we are making it as if landing at JFK.
All in all, kudos to Israel,
41
It didn't just come within 13 miles. It came within 12, 11, 10... 3, 2, 1, 0 miles. That is, it's on the moon right now. It's just not operational.
12
@Neil
And how elated, happy and proud are Palestinian men, women and children living in Israel, West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem ,Golan Heights, Jordan, Lebanon and the Palestinian Nahkba disapora about this Israeli moon stunt?
5
They'll get there soon, if for no other reason than to beat Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah.
5
in this case go slow is the key for success, why doenst it lost meter by meter in orbit in approximation to the moon; and let me see if I understood; spaceil spent 100 million dollars and will catch 1 million, ok fine.
"The failure of the landing highlighted the risks of a fast and cheap approach to space exploration."
The folks at Boeing could have told them this, without getting their vehicle more than a few thousand feet off the ground.
5
It is unclear why this dreadful accident occurred. I am sure that, in the coming weeks and months, the crash will be analyzed.
It would be premature to conclude that it was due to the low cost of the mission. India's mission to the Moon in 2008, which put a craft into orbit and which sent a probe down to the Moon's surface (which confirmed the presence of water on the Moon) was a very low-cost endeavour. As was their successful mission to Mars in 2014.
Meanwhile, NASA has had a number of failures despite spending a lot of money on its missions.
6
Then, a little later in the day the Space X Falcon Heavy Rocket launched successfully followed by all three of its Falcon 9 cores landing successfully.
The successes by some of the other private space companies deserve to be reported on too.
13
That’s not a big deal.
@Thomas Paine .. Rocket scientists and engineers .. do you agree with Thomas?
1
It’s a big deal. All three landing safely after carrying the payload into space is truly amazing.
5
The fact that a half century ago, the US successfully landed men on the moon and then returned them safely to earth several times while today one of the most technologically advanced nations on the planet - Israel - is still unable to even land an unmanned craft is a sterling testament to the staggering accomplishments of the US space program and American ingenuity so long ago. Nobody else has done it since and even after all these years, every time I think about those days, it still puts a big ol' proud smile on my AMERICAN face.
18
Absolutely! Although, this was mostly a private venture.
4
@mpound. Of course, during the 1960s NASA received nearly 4% of the annual federal budget and had the backing of the President and Congress. Had not the race to the Moon become a Cold War contest, it is unlikely that our government would have focused the nation's industrial and technological prowess on the effort. Although we will never know for sure, I remember the line "if we can put a man on the Moon, why can’t we solve [fill in the blank] right here on Earth.”
In comparison, the Israeli attempt was privately financed and was purely a scientific and educational endeavor. Still, considering this was Israel's first attempt (unlike Falcon whose current success followed several failures), it is a stunning accomplishment even if not entirely successful.
Lets see what the next chapter holds for little Israel.
20
@mpound
Not to denigrate in any way what the US accomplished, but Beresheet was a low-cost(by comparison) volunteer/private effort. It wasn't funded by the government.
11
Great. Private billionaires are entering the space race for no valid scientific purpose or restrictions, sending more hazardous debris or “Space Junk” into an already cluttered Earth orbit. Soon it could be too dangerous for astronauts to carry out future exploration.
Now that China has stopped taking America’s plastic waste (yes they did!) I can see Musk making money sending that giant glob of plastic bags, bottles and outdoor chairs currently clogging our seas to the moon.
No wonder another intelligent life form has not contacted us!
11
I should ad that my family were friends of Lovell and Aldrin. I carry a coin given to me by Lovell from the Gemini. Never did we foresee the mass commercialization of space with no real protections for exploitation.
1
@H.A. Hyde Such negativity is for a world without dreamers or winners. Congratulations to the team for a bold and ambitious attempt at an incredible achievement for a small country with limited resources. If only people could focus on the glory in trying and achieving most of not all if the objectives.
2
I'm glad they got the award anyway. It will help them slog on and succeed the next time around.
9
Congratulations to the Israeli technicians. They should be proud of their accomplishements.
But "private space exploration" is a contradiction in terms. Something either turns a profit or it doesn't - and if it does, you start cutting costs to maximize profit until something fails. There is no place for "exploration" unless it can be exploited for gain.
Elon Musk shot a sports car at the sun at a cost of 100 million dollars - does Congress think that they will not pay that back ten times over and then some once they are dependent on private industry for their space exploration? Does Elon Musk look stupid to them?
The American public is being taken for a ride by politicians who pretend to be geniuses for using private industry. When in reality, they are devising a system whereby we will get less science at a higher cost in the long run.
5
Private doesn’t mean for profit.
2
I'm sorry for the failure, but the failure started a whole lot sooner than this afternoon. The organization is rightfully labeled a 'non profit' because there was never any profit in going back to the Moon. If it had been profitable we'd have been there all along. The money, whether theirs or ours, a.k.a. taxes, will be much better used almost anywhere else on earth. (The second biggest wast would be another tax cut.)
2
In engineering, there is a balance to be struck between prior planning vs. trial and error. "Failure" is a relative term, if there is something to be learned from setback. I work in a Civil field, where we don't really have the luxury of prototypes or taking chances because our products are too big, expensive, and permanent, so I envy the engineers in fields who are more able to rely on iterative design.
5
Do we need to put more of our detritus in space? I know it is a thrill for the ego, but could IL use the resources more wisely on Earth? Well, it is a publicity stunt, in that sense, it worked.
15
@Lev Hundreds of years ago, you could've said the same thing about boats, the ocean, and land routes to Asia.
14
Space is a big place. It's far from being overcluttered (like my bedroom, for a comparison).
However, I agree that a lot of space junk orbiting the earth seems unappealing.
@Lev
You are correct!
After all, space is so tiny, and the amount of our "detritus" is so big!
I hope we are not taking plastic bags into outer space.
They will surely clog the engines of later spacecraft and they look terrible, too. And now, they are illegal in New York. Along with big sodas.
Let's make Space Great Again!
1
Despite the crash, it showed that fast and cheap COULD at least orbit the moon.
This story, the photo of the black hole, and the Chinese lunar landing on the far side of the moon should be reasons enough to invest in space exploration. The return on investment is higher than any other investment I can imagine one making.
Once we get to the stars, we realize how small we truly are. Maybe the more people who go to space, the more likely we as a human race will be able to realize how small and insignificant our selfishness, tribalism, and fighting truly are.
23
Of course, on the other hand, we might also see that earth is the only blue planet. As far as we can tell, even with our telescopes that can “see” a black hole 58 million light years away, it is the only “living” planet. We would see that that the earth is “uniquely “fine-tuned” to support life. We would realize that our own individual and collective consciousness make us the epitome of life on earth, and we would appreciate the value of human life as the crown and purpose of creation.
And then, maybe eventually, we will come to realize how small and insignificant all of our selfishness, tribalism, and fighting are.
12
@Kyle D Perhaps you’re right that space exploration is the best investment we could make but you haven’t made a convincing case for it by anything mentioned in your last paragraph.
2
@Cold Eye
Great sentiment, but I think the Israeli/Palestinian conflict will go on for a three centuries.
It is a pretty big accomplishment to just get there and not miss.
57
So you really think that fast and cheap caused the failure? Until and unless we understand what caused the failure we have no idea if speed (it really was not that fast) or cost (it was not that cheap either. I seem to remember two massive failures in NASA and many previously.
27
@vulcanalex Indeed. India's mission to the Moon in 2008, which put a craft into orbit around the Moon, and sent a probe down to the moon (confirming the presence of water on the Moon), was very cheap indeed.
As was India's successful mission to Mars. And as you say, NASA has had failures despite putting a lot of money into its missions.
14
India would be better off feeding its people
1
@Ed
When you say cheap, what is the dollar amount you are referring to?
1
IIRC, it took both the US and the USSR several efforts to land on the moon successfully. And that was with spending a lot more money.
This makes China's success in landing on the far side of the moon all the more incredible.
9
@Simon DelMonte
You do realize, don't you, that the money spent on the space race in the 1960's is in large part responsible for the technology that might allow for successful cheap space exploration today?
I mean, my parents paid $120 for my Christmas present in 1973 of a Texas Instruments calculator that could do square roots(!). Every smartphone on the planet has more computing power than a roomful of IBMs in the 1960s.
Comparing any current efforts now to the achievements of the USSR and the USA is the 1960s is silly. It WAS a giant step for mankind.
12
All in all Israel and Doron et. al have executed a mission to be very proud of. Trying to land on the dark side of the moon must have been a greater challenge than doing it where extant data had already pioneered.
The cause of the landing mishap will be informative and surely make future missions more likely to succeed.
That the mission was brought in with so little expense is quite astounding when compared to NASA's cost landing on the face of the moon.
Well done Israel and Mr. Doron. Well done indeed.
46
Don’t forgot the tech used by NASA 50 years ago compared to today, I’d consider it a big failure.
27
@Texexnv -- NASA's costs are related to risk minimisation. There will always be failures; there always are when pushing the envelope. But NASA has to avoid political problems to maintain its funding. Private organisations only answer to themselves.
3
@Texexnv The moon does not have a dark side.
2
A really cool effort by SpaceIL's. Congratulations. You were almost there and next time you will make it to the moon. I read the whole effort cost around $100 million, Really amazing.
36
Best of luck to them on their next try.
It is good to see the moon back in the news because in a little more than 3 months we will have the anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon.
I hope CBS will replay a bunch of Walter Cronkite's footage of that mission!
26
Engine restarts are the bane of rocketry. Fuel lines get blocked or freeze. All manner of things go wrong. The main issue here seems to be that one rocket engine did everything. The engine had to have enough thrust to hold up the probe against lunar gravity, while being controllable enough to make those fine adjustments that they did to get into lunar orbit. The LEROS engine used is generally used to adjust orbits, not land. It has not been 100% reliable in the past.
Compare Apollo where there was a command module engine for orbiting, a lunar lander engine for landing, and a lander upper stage engine for getting back to the command module.
36
@Daedalus - But Apollo had to deal with vastly more mass which takes much more energy to manage.
2
@Daedalus
Very true.
The Mars Observer mission was lost three days before arrival at Mars in 1993 due to a propulsion system explosion. It's just not easy.
7
Bravo Israel.
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
Teddy Roosevelt
84
@Jordan: What's $100,000,000 more or less? Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
18
@Martin Daly Vanity is the $800,000,000 paid to hedge fund managers. These $100,000,000 are an investment in the expansion of human knowledge, which is the complete opposite of vanity, whether the mission succeeded or whether it did not.
54
@Berks Does every country have to make a Moonshot? Maybe they should just go to a store and buy a book about the Moonshots? $12.95 on Amazon?
12