Israel launched the Beresheet 2 project, which aims to land an unmanned spacecraft on the moon in 2024. Earlier, Israel’s Beresheet probe crashed and landed on the moon. The Hebrew word Beresheet (speaking in Israel) means Genesis.
Highlights:
♦ The Beresheet probe is a private flight to the moon by the Israeli non-profit SpaceIL organization.
♦ It was successfully launched on a Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral in the United States in February 2019 and reached lunar orbit in April 2019.
♦ When it was about to land and crashed on the surface of the moon, it suffered an engine failure.
♦ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has decided to send an unmanned spacecraft to the moon in 2024.
♦ Artemis is a manned space program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
♦ Its goal is to land “the first woman and the next man” on the moon (especially in the lunar south pole) by 2024.
Beresheet 2:
– Goal: Conduct experiments and collect data on behalf of school students.
– Structure: It will involve launching two landing craft and an orbiter that has orbited the moon for many years.
– Cost: Approximately US$100 million will be raised from international partnerships and donors.
– Significance: Israel may become the fourth country to launch a spacecraft on the moon after the United States, the former Soviet Union and China.
Other missions to the moon:
– India plans to conduct a new moon mission called Chandrayaan-3. It is likely to be launched in early 2021.
– This will be a repetition of Chandrayaan-2’s mission, which will include a lander and Rover similar to Chandrayaan-2, but without an orbiter.
– Chandrayaan-2 failed, which shattered India’s dream and became the first country to make its first moon landing successfully.
