SpaceIL decides Beresheet-2 will not be lunar mission
The new colonial movement: The Israeli nonprofit company SpaceIL has decided that its second Beresheet spacecraft will not go to the Moon.
The association’s board of directors decided to involve the public in the process of choosing the challenge that Beresheet 2 will lead, as was done in the national mission to the moon. At the same time, the association will continue to focus on establishing the values of the “Beresheet effect” among the younger generation in Israel.
What I think is really going on is that they have realized that they cannot raise the necessary cash to fly another lunar lander, and are therefore setting their sights lower in order to find a mission they can fund.
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The new colonial movement: The Israeli nonprofit company SpaceIL has decided that its second Beresheet spacecraft will not go to the Moon.
The association’s board of directors decided to involve the public in the process of choosing the challenge that Beresheet 2 will lead, as was done in the national mission to the moon. At the same time, the association will continue to focus on establishing the values of the “Beresheet effect” among the younger generation in Israel.
What I think is really going on is that they have realized that they cannot raise the necessary cash to fly another lunar lander, and are therefore setting their sights lower in order to find a mission they can fund.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
As all the updates our host provides us show, there are a lot of amazing things that can be done at asteroids and comets. Not sure if that would be any cheaper but a little creativity will find a way forward.
From the article: “the ‘Beresheet 2’ spacecraft will not fly to the moon, since such a project does not pose enough of a new challenge.”
I hate to say it, for a project that did so much, but they failed to meet the project’s actual challenge. If all they are looking for is to break new records, then they are not doing what I had expected and are not serious about space exploration. It seems to me that they need to meet their first challenge before they move on to others. Otherwise, they could spend a lot of money not completing any of their challenges, yet still improve their capabilities — just not demonstrate this improvement.
Even if they do the same thing over again, they can advance science and our knowledge of the Moon, and that is quite enough challenge for many explorers.
If they do not have enough money in order to try for the Moon again, then that is the challenge that I propose. Find a way to raise that money. Indeed, raising outside funds was the first challenge NASA gave to its Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) awardees. Meeting that first challenge led to lower cost resupply missions to the ISS. Meeting a similar challenge could lead to SpaceIL providing lower cost exploration missions.