SpaceIL decides Beresheet-2 will not be lunar mission
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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.
For many reasons, mostly political but partly ethical, I do not use Google, Facebook, Twitter. They practice corrupt business policies, while targeting conservative websites for censoring, facts repeatedly confirmed by news stories and by my sense that Facebook has taken action to prevent my readers from recommending Behind the Black to their friends.
Thus, I must have your direct support to keep this webpage alive. Not only does the money pay the bills, it gives me the freedom to speak honestly about science and culture, instead of being forced to write it as others demand.
Please consider donating by giving either a one-time contribution or a regular subscription, as outlined in the tip jar below.
Regular readers can support Behind The Black with a contribution via paypal:
If Paypal doesn't work for you, you can support Behind The Black directly by sending your donation by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman, 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. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
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.
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.