Israel has every chance of becoming another country that landed its own apparatus on the moon. If everything goes according to plan, then April 12 the Beresheet spacecraft will touch the surface of the earth satellite. However, along with it will come something valuable for humanity.
Fight for Google-prize
In 2007 the contest Google Lunar XPRIZE started, sponsored by Google. The main goal is to motivate private teams to create a robotic spacecraft that could carry out landing on the moon with a cash gain.
The winner was considered the one who creates the device on time, performs a safe landing on the moon, travels 500 meters and sends high-quality photos and videos to Earth. Initially we planned to choose a winner in 2014, but due to delays, we had to renew each year. As a result, in 2018 there were 5 teams left, among which was an Israeli SpaceIL.
This Israeli organization appeared specifically in 2011 to participate in the competition. The main prize was $ 20 million. By the final date in March 2018, no one had time to submit the ship, so the cash prize was canceled. However, SpaceIL decided to continue the project independently.
Mission Beresheet
Before you is not only the first possible lunar landing site from Israel, but also the first spacecraft built for money from private investors. The name is translated from Hebrew as “at the beginning” and has a religious meaning (this is how Genesis begins).
At first, SpaceIL planned to create something cheap and easy, but the final version weighs 585 kg, where about 400 kg is allocated to fuel. In diameter it covers 2 m, and it is pulled in one and a half in height. To launch used missile Falcon 9 of the company SapceX.
The launch took place on February 22, 2019. The device has already managed to turn on the module engines. Ahead of him is a long ride with several gravity slingshots. In the end, if all goes well, then on April 12 the ship will be moored in the Sea of Clarity (northern lunar hemisphere).
All mankind aboard
Although the ship will work only two days on the surface itself, it is equipped with scientific instruments, such as a magnetometer and an array of laser angle reflectors. However, the most important thing is hidden in the “time capsule”.
In addition to Israeli attributes, such as the flag, the national anthem and a copy of the Declaration of Independence, the organizers added a drive for 30 million pages of information, including knowledge of all humanity. This is 2 terabytes of data with a full copy of the English-language Wikipedia, the translation of the Bible, various children's drawings, stories, important events and features of various cultures of the Earth. Why is all this necessary on the moon? All this was done in order for us to have a spare library of our own history and knowledge. If something happens to the Earth, then our descendants or guests from other civilizations can recover data. Thus, we secured a memory and preserved the past.
The drive is a compact nickel disk located in a special shockproof container (even meteorites are not terrible). On the surface are tiny information that can be recognized at a 100-fold magnification in a telescope.
Postscript
This is not the first attempt to preserve the memory or share it with other civilizations. For example, there is the golden plate of “Voyager”, where people left their greeting in 55 languages. 78% of the information is reserved for all types of music (from classical to tribal singing), and the rest is divided between human voices, pictures and drawings. There is a similar record on Pioneer (the structure of a man and the map of the solar system are shown indicating our planet).
