Article 3 days ago about Israel's Beresheet , a private moon mission.
India is all set to be the fourth country to soft-land on the Moon during the early hours of Saturday, September 7. Just five months earlier, however, Israel was about to achieve this historic feat. Unfortunately, Beresheet, a private Moon mission by the Israeli non-profit organisation SpaceIL, crashed on the lunar surface on April 11, 2019.
Beresheet means 'in the beginning' in Hebrew. The ₹720 crore mission was cheaper than even the Chandrayaan-2 mission, which costs ₹978 crore. Morris Kahn, the billionaire businessman, philanthropist and SpaceIL president, backed the mission financially. Just two days after the crash, SpaceIL said 'the dream goes on', with Kahn promising another mission soon.
It is this never-give-up attitude of scientists and visionary leaders that keeps the space dream alive and thriving. Beresheet was not the first space endeavour that faced failure, and it certainly won't be the last.
It is this never-give-up attitude of scientists and visionary leaders that keeps the space dream alive and thriving. Beresheet was not the first space endeavour that faced failure, and it certainly won't be the last.
In 1959, the Soviet Union crash-landed the first human-made object (Luna 2 spacecraft) intentionally on the Moon's surface. The first-ever soft landing was achieved by Luna 9, seven years later in 1966. For the next ten years, 12 Soviet and US spacecraft made soft landings including six human-crewed missions. After several failures, both countries discontinued Moon missions and therefore, there was no soft landing on the Moon from 1976 to 2013.
On December 14, 2013, China successfully soft-landed its Chang'e 3 spacecraft on the Moon, becoming only the third country to do so. Israel could have been the fourth had Beresheet not lost contact with mission control just minutes after the descent was initiated. Space is a tough nut to crack, and Beresheet served as a reminder.
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket carried the Beresheet as a secondary payload along with another telecom satellite. To keep up with the restrictions on size and cost, scientists had to forgo the backup systems. Therefore, even one system failure could have compromised the mission. Despite several technical glitches during the flight, scientists successfully manoeuvred Beresheet into the right position for a soft landing on April 11.
As the descent started, the braking rockets were fired to control the speed of the spacecraft's fall. However, the gyroscope engine, responsible for speed and direction control, failed halfway through. The mission control couldn't reset the component due to the sudden loss of communication. The communications were restored later but it was too late to avoid a crash, as the spacecraft was falling at over 500 kmph.
Though most of the payloads were broken apart, some parts such as the Lunar Library are likely to have survived the crash. The Lunar Library contains 30 million-page archive of human history in a digital form. It reportedly contains a small sample of Bodhi tree in India along with learning materials of Hindi, Urdu and Indian music. One of the toughest organisms on Earth, Tardigrades, were also part of this library.
Today, India waits with bated breath for Vikram, the lander of Chandrayaan-2, to make its final descent. As the 15 terrifying minutes approach, it is the right time to remember the immense challenges that space exploration missions face and to honour the ingenuity of our scientific community.
Anupamaa
