Beresheet op de maan

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Israel’s Beresheet spacecraft to attempt Moon landing

The first privately funded mission to the Moon will attempt to land on the lunar surface today.

The Israeli spacecraft - called Beresheet - will try for a soft touch down, before taking pictures and conducting experiments.

Until now, only government space agencies from the former Soviet Union, the US and China have achieved this.

The mission has cost about $100m, paving the way for future low-cost lunar exploration.

Beresheet, which is Hebrew for "in the beginning", is a joint project between SpaceIL, a privately funded Israeli non-profit organisation, and Israel Aerospace Industries.

Morris Kahn, the founder of SpaceIL, told BBC News: "The landing will be extremely challenging.

"But we've got good engineers, the spacecraft has responded well to our instructions over the last two months...

I'm reasonably confident but a little nervous."

How significant is this mission?

Over 60 years of space exploration, only three nations have made it down onto the Moon.

The former Soviet Union achieved the first soft landing with its spacecraft Luna 9 in 1966. Nasa followed this by getting the first humans to the Moon in 1969. Then, China's Change-4 spacecraft touched down on the far-side of the Moon earlier this year.

If their landing works, Israel will be the fourth nation to join this elite club.

But it's the low-price tag - and the fact that this mission has not been funded by a major space agency - that really makes this mission stand out.

Its cost of $100m is a fraction of what would normally be spent on a venture like this.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-47879538

Jews In Deep Space