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SpaceIL lunar lander mission - 2019
Phil Stooke
post Sep 13 2018, 06:21 AM
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I'm setting this up in preparation for the launch of SpaceIL's lunar mission, probably early next year. They have arranged a rideshare with Spaceflight Industries on a Falcon 9 launch early in 2019. Earlier they were saying launch in December, land on the Moon in February, so now I assume the landing might be delayed until March. This mission was originally going to be part of the Google Lunar X Prize, but that of course is now gone. It might be rekindled with a different sponsor (though I doubt it).

SpaceIL is the first of the GLXP teams to actually make it to a launch. For what it's worth, I expect Astrobotic to fly as well, and I think Team Indus and PTScientists may also get off the ground. I'm hearing things about Moon Express which cause me to doubt its chances.

More on landing sites shortly.

Phil


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Phil Stooke
post Sep 13 2018, 07:09 PM
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The lander will carry a magnetometer, and landing site discussions have suggested landing at a magnetic anomaly. Early talk about this suggested landing at the well-known Reiner Gamma swirl and magnetic anomaly in Oceanus Procellarum, probably the best known such feature on the Moon. This was illustrated in a Youtube video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRJ5HsgHhxQ


Subsequent work changed the target. Areas within about 20 degrees of the limb were off limits to avoid communication problems, and areas within about --- degrees of the equator were rejected for thermal reasons (to avoid the hottest temperatures at lunar noon). Within the northern and southern zones remaining, topographically safe sites were selected, avoiding regions with particularly low or high albedo to facilitate use of the laser altimeter. Those sites were compared with maps of magnetic anomalies and three potential sites were selected. This process is described in a 2017 LPSC abstract and poster:

LPSC abstract, 2017:

https://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2017/pdf/1914.pdf

associated poster:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/32...ion_to_the_Moon

(I spoke to Grossman at the meeting).


The favoured site was near Berzelius crater. I will show a map later.

Phil





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Phil Stooke
post Sep 23 2018, 05:49 PM
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This illustration shows the sites suggested for SpaceIL in the abstract and poster mentioned above.


Attached Image



The company which built the lander for SpaceIL is contemplating the possibility of future missions:

https://spacenews.com/iai-studying-follow-o...l-lunar-lander/


Phil



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nprev
post Sep 24 2018, 03:48 AM
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Interesting. Kinda makes me wonder if they're actually interested in finding ferrous metal deposits, presumably left by iron-nickel impactors.


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Phil Stooke
post Oct 30 2018, 11:46 PM
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SpaceIL has been running a lander name competition - I didn't know about it, but it looks like it ran on their Facebook page and they got lots of suggestions, then made a shortlist and are now asking the public to vote on names from the shortlist.

https://twitter.com/teamspaceil?lang=en

http://www.spaceil.com/


Phil




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Phil Stooke
post Nov 8 2018, 05:13 PM
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A very nice update on SpaceIL at the Planetary Society:

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis...er-feature.html


In particular it contains details of the landing site, and it is one I had not seen mentioned before. The previous site information which I posted above was from an LPSC presentation, but this is different - the NW edge of Mare Serenitatis. In the earlier work mare areas were ruled out as not suitable for the use of their laser altimeter (too dark, reducing the reflected signal). Back to the (map) drawing board! (or as I call it, the kitchen table).

Phil

EDIT: Oops, here is an earlier statement:

https://www.israel21c.org/israeli-space-tea...g-for-the-moon/

I had seen it but had foolishly discounted it because of the earlier prohibition on dark mare surfaces.


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Phil Stooke
post Dec 13 2018, 08:05 AM
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Follow-on to the naming story - SpaceIL has just tweeted their name for the lander, which had been called Sparrow since the very beginning. Now it has a new name, Beresheet, meaning 'in the beginning' (or 'Genesis').

Phil


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Phil Stooke
post Dec 18 2018, 09:29 PM
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This is the new SpaceIL landing area. Launch now set for February 2019 on a rideshare Falcon 9.

Phil

Attached Image



EDIT: updated the map on 19 December


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SpaceListener
post Dec 18 2018, 09:41 PM
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QUOTE (Phil Stooke @ Dec 18 2018, 03:29 PM) *
This is the new SpaceIL landing area. Launch now set for February 2019 on a rideshare Falcon 9.

Phil

[attachment=43905:landing_area.jpg]

How high is the map calibrated? The landing site looks very smooth but it is not true if the picture is not close enough to see better about the roughness of the surface.
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Phil Stooke
post Dec 18 2018, 09:48 PM
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You are referring to the scale of the map, and as you say, at this scale we don't see small hazards. But we do see large hazards and they are nearly absent from this area. No part of the Moon is really smooth.

Phil


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SpaceListener
post Dec 19 2018, 05:33 PM
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To refresh news from SpaceIL

http://www.moondaily.com/reports/Israeli_s...ourney_999.html

Already very soon, perhaps in two months for the launch.
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Thorsten Denk
post Dec 28 2018, 12:19 PM
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QUOTE (Phil Stooke @ Dec 18 2018, 10:29 PM) *
This is the new SpaceIL landing area. Launch now set for February 2019 on a rideshare Falcon 9.

The date is NET 13-February.
The ride is shared with Indonesia’s PSN-6 communications satellite.

https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-falcon-9-c...anetary-launch/

The 13-Feb is the date that was originally foreseen as the landing date, with launch in December 2018.
The lunar phase on Feb-13 is 8 days old, this means good timing for an early morning landing.
Of course this will not happen this way because the trip to the Moon also needs a few days.
So I expect the landing at least one month later (mid-March),
or maybe even two if they follow the original flight plan.

Best
Thorsten

PS: EDIT: "with launch in December 2018", not 2017.
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Thorsten Denk
post Feb 19 2019, 08:41 AM
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Launch of SpaceIL's Beresheet Lunar Lander next Thursday (Friday UTC)!

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/18/middleea...intl/index.html

Landing on April 11, this seems less then one day from local sunrise. Interesting!

Thorsten
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Thorsten Denk
post Feb 21 2019, 08:26 AM
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Somewhere (I don't find it anymore unsure.gif)
I read that April 11 is the date of LOI,
followed by another week of orbiting the Moon.
This would mean landing around local noon,
what makes more sense...

Thorsten
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Paolo
post Feb 21 2019, 10:45 AM
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there is a good recap of the mission on the Nature website:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00634-8
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