First private Israel lunar mission to be launched this week

Associated Press ^ | February 18, 2019 | Ilan Ben Zion

[Olog-hai]

A nonprofit Israeli consortium said Monday that it hopes to make history this week by launching the first private aircraft to land on the moon.

SpaceIL and state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries told a news conference that the landing craft — dubbed “Beresheet,” or Genesis — will take off from Florida, propelled by a SpaceX Falcon rocket on its weekslong voyage to the moon.

The launch is scheduled late Thursday in the United States, early Friday in Israel. It had been originally slated for last December. […]

The small craft, roughly the size of a washing machine, is equipped with instruments to measure the moon’s magnetic field, as well as a copy of the Bible microscopically etched on a small metal disc. …

[null and void]

That's part of it. These knuckleheads insist we simply don't have the technology or the ability to do it again.

I still know how to use a slide rule, but few do these days, and how could we possibly do it again without slide rules and vacuum tubes????</knucklehead>

The real problem is every penny spent on expanding humankind's reach and knowledge is a penny that can't be used to buy inner city votes. Knuckleheads gotta knuckle-drag...

[humbleexpert]

Israel should build a colony on the moon.

Israel was once a desert, which modern-day Israelis turned into a land flowing with milk and honey.

Why couldn’t a group of hearty Israeli settlers create a similar miracle on the moon?

[EQAndyBuzz]

Now if this “aircraft” successfully lands on the moon, I am wondering if it could take off via remote control from earth?

Think of the opportunities should this be accomplished? The aircraft can be fitted with a high intensity laser and it can be used as a satellite hunter.

[EQAndyBuzz]

“Israel should build a colony on the moon.”

If Israel builds a colony on the moon, the Palis will claim it’s theirs.

[Harpotoo]

Balloons VS Rockets:-)

[Olog-hai]

“Right of return … to the moon, Al-Lis!”

Well, Allah is the moon god after all. But he may have some competition from Japan’s Tsukuyomi.

[jjotto]

There used to be a cartoon with a Jew in a travel agent’s office looking at a world map with the caption, “Got anyplace else?”

[ADemocratNoMore]

> he may have some competition from Japan’s Tsukuyomi.

Or Kaguya.

[KC_Lion]

Thank You for the ping :)

[TLOne]

“I don’t know if this is part of what you’re referring to, but supposedly the blueprints to the F1 engine that powered the booster part of the Saturn V were destroyed.

Supposedly they are gone forever.

I’d sooner buy the Brooklyn Bridge than believe that one.”

The plans are all there and isn’t the main issue. The F1 engines were hand built and the people who learned all the tricks of how to fabricate them are long retired or deceased. Building a completely new engine using modern tools and techniques is easier than trying to recreate a handcrafted engine designed by sliderule.