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Israeli Group To Attempt Moon Landing
cold fjord writes: "NDTV reports, 'Israel plans to do what only the world's biggest countries have so far managed to do: land an unmanned spacecraft on the moon ... only Russia, the U.S. and China have soft landed on the moon, and India hard landed its tri-colour using the moon impact probe in 2008 ... The washing machine-sized spacecraft that weighs 121 kilograms is being readied by a not-for-profit venture called SpaceIL. ... The Israeli lunar probe had its genesis after the $30 million Google Lunar X Prize was announced as a competition which challenged non-state-owned space agencies to land on the moon, send back photos, and move 500 meters on the surface of the moon. About two dozen global teams are racing to win the prize- SpaceIL reckons it's in pole position. ... ex-NASA engineer Yonatan Winetraub and two of his friends conceived of the spacecraft in 2010 ... then used a Facebook page to promote the dream. Today, the dream has matured into a $36 million mission with 20 full time employees and 250 volunteers. ... Around 40,000 school students have been associated with this project.' Further details are available here."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
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Someone convince them the Muslims got there first, and are living in craters... then we'll get loads of colonists on the moon in no time.
Going to the moon isn't merely a curiosity or a scientific achievement. It's a statement to the world that you were able to accurately land a payload on a target more than 350,000 km away. If you can do that with a rocket that leaves near-Earth orbit, it means you can do it with one that does not leave Earth orbit.
In other words, moon landings are how you tell the world you have ICBMs (or at least the ability to make them) without the public throwing a fit about it.
Maybe ... the ... author ... should ... try ... writing ... an ... article ... in ... full ... sentences
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Maybe from the US citizens not the the US gov't. Only 10% of funds can come from a government source to eligible for the Lunar X prize.
One thing about Israel, they've a long track record of finding dirt cheap ways to do things the US government/military or such like to shovel billions of dollars at.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
moon colonies?
That would be moon "settlements" - Israel doesn't colonize, citizen.
Wir sind geboren, um frei zu sein - Rio Reiser
... than making peace with your neighbours. ;-)
Personally, I find it somewhat sad that individual groups of people are all trying to accomplish the same thing or things which have been accomplished by humanity previously. What I'm saying is that I wish, rather, that the entire world would unite efforts in furthering human space-exploration technologies instead of countries keeping these "secrets" to themselves and ultimately slowing everything down from what they could be if we had one major, united world effort.
I suppose a lot of that behavior originates from from exactly what you point out in your post — though I do not understand said behavior.
Yeah, but that's only one tiny part of the space race --- America's the clear leader if you look at the big milestones, instead of just cherry-picking one isolated mission. Like, first satellite in orbit --- oops, ignore that. How about first human in space --- aww, shit; well they aren't really in space unless they can do the first spacewalk --- dang. Well, the free and equal US at least got the first woman in space... fooey. Well, near-earth is easy stuff anyway; how about first to reach another planet? Darn, but first to touch another planet... well, first to soft-land on another planet... shit. OK, first sample-return from outside earth... err, let's focus on what's really important in the space race...
USA Number One! USA! USA! USA!
Really? How many things have *YOU* soft-landed on the moon?
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Such money questions are improper, since they declared themselves non-profit - isn't that inoculation enough? (One wonders how one might plan to turn a profit on a one-way robot ship trip. Sponsorship stickers?)
I recommend this entertaining quiz for more insight on how peaceful either religion is.
Wish I had some mod points to rate you up... that was the first thing I wondered. I mean, landing on the moon is SO easy, anybody can stick a firecracker on a tin can and do it.
The article starts off with "Israel Plans", except it's not Israel, it's an organization inside Israel? I had a salad for lunch. "America has salad for lunch! Later plans to visit restroom!"
Yeah, but that's only one tiny part of the space race --- America's the clear leader if you look at the big milestones, instead of just cherry-picking one isolated mission. Like, first satellite in orbit --- oops, ignore that. How about first human in space --- aww, shit; well they aren't really in space unless they can do the first spacewalk --- dang. Well, the free and equal US at least got the first woman in space... fooey. Well, near-earth is easy stuff anyway; how about first to reach another planet? Darn, but first to touch another planet... well, first to soft-land on another planet... shit. OK, first sample-return from outside earth... err, let's focus on what's really important in the space race...
USA Number One! USA! USA! USA!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F...
GGWP rest of the world.
His point is that this "We're #1" hubris is a bit misplaced when it was the Russians that got just about every single first in the space race. Year the moon landing was slick and the joyride on the surface in a rover with a driver's seat was kinda cool, but don't go around saying America was first in everything.
This complacency is going to be America's undoing, and the standard racist /. reaction to every non-American space venture is just a symptom of it.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
Individual groups of people all trying to accomplish the same thing or things is absolutely essential to get stuff done. It motivates people to focus and work hard on the problem, because they know that others are working hard too and they will likely reach similar quality and are progressing fast. The competition between people means competition between solutions, which allows the soundest solutions to prevail (up to exceptions).
Competition can be friendly, especially if you are not too emotionally invested, and that's great especially for the people involved. Unfriendly competition is still great in the long run even though it introduces redundancies. The space race gave a big surge to the technological progress. Sport competitions give many athletes (or chess players or whoever) an incentive to improve. Computer Go programs evolved rapidly recently also thanks to competition. Recent Debian discussions about their next init system gave massive boost to openrc development.
Without competition, people are lazy and slack, since any effort is not worth it! Competition is awesome!
It's not the fall that kills you. It's the sudden stop at the end. -Douglas Adams
Hmmm
I'll just leave this here...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
Apologies if poking fun at the motivations for private space exploration annoys people like yourself lacking in "prestige" due to having a small "space program."
Do you think that other groups lander will be able to make the 500m trip?
Their plan is to land in one of the "seas" that are relatively smooth. The wheels have a diameter bigger than the body, so the robot can move as easily when inverted as when right side up. It has gone more than 500m when tested in the Mojave Desert, and that is with six times lunar gravity, and half the sunlight intensity. The last time I spoke to them, their biggest concern was not meeting the requirements, but that someone else would beat them to it.
It's anti-Israel in that the story about a private group putting together a moon mission instantly morphs into "those Jews are using our money".
"sometimes-aggressive" as in Israel occasionally have to push back against the surrounding countries that want to finish what Hitler started.
The US gives Israel about 3 billion a year in financial aid, and Israel can only use this money to buy military equipment back from the US.
Israel's defense budget is about 15 billion a year.
"Remove them from Israel/Palestine" frequently came with a sometimes explicit, sometimes implicit "by killing them". The situation in the Middle East is not quite as bad as it used to be, but only a couple years ago Ahmadinejad was ready to use nukes to do it.
Let's look at the subject in more detail. First satellite, first human, first successful lunar mission -- clearly the Soviets.
After that:
First successful mission to another planet: Mariner 2 flyby of Venus, 1962, USA. Your listing of Venera 1 as the "first to reach another planet" neglects to mention that the spacecraft failed before it got there.
First successful mission to Mars: Mariner 4, 1964, USA.
First communications satellites: passive, Echo I, 1960, USA; active, Courier 1B, USA.
First spacecraft rendezvous in orbit: Geminis 6 and 7, 1965, USA.
First spacecraft docking in orbit: Gemini 8, 1966, USA.
First manned spacecraft beyond low earth orbit: Apollo 8, 1968, USA
First manned spacecraft in lunar orbit: Apollo 8, 1968, USA
First spacecraft to orbit another planet: Mariner 9, Nov 1971, USA
First mission beyond the inner solar system: Pioneer 10, 1973, USA
First flyby of Jupiter: Pioneer 10, 1973, USA
There are many others.
Now let's examine some of the Soviet space firsts:
First soft lander on the Moon: 3 Feb 1966, Luna 9, USSR, a success by any definition, sent back pictures, operated for 3 days on lunar surface
compared to:, Surveyor 1, first USA soft lander, landed 14 July 1966, operated for nearly 6 months on the lunar surface
First soft lander on Mars: Mars 3, Dec 1971, USSR, operated for 14.5 seconds on the surface, compared to Viking 1, first USA Mars lander, July 1976, operated for 6 years on the surface.
So the story that the USSR was the clear leader in early space exploration is clearly false. Both nations had impressive 'firsts', anyone who doesn't acknowledge the accomplishments of both has poor knowledge of the subject.