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Israel To Launch First Privately Funded Moon Mission (theguardian.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: A team of Israeli scientists is to launch what will be the first privately funded mission to land on the moon this week, sending a spacecraft to collect data from the lunar surface. Named Beresheet, the Hebrew word for Genesis, the 585kg (1,290lb) robotic lander will blast off from Florida at 01.45 GMT on Friday, propelled by one of Elon Musk's SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets. Once it touches down, in several weeks, it will measure the magnetic field of the moon to help understand how it formed. Beresheet will also deposit a "time capsule" of digital files the size of coins containing the Bible, children's drawings, Israel's national anthem and blue and white flag, as well as memories of a Holocaust survivor. While it is not a government-led initiative, the state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) corporation joined as a partner. If the mission is successful, Israel will become the fourth country, after Russia, the U.S. and China, to reach the moon. "This is the lowest-budget spacecraft to ever undertake such a mission," an IAI statement said of the $100 million project. "The superpowers who managed to land a spacecraft on the moon have spent hundreds of millions." It added that although it was a private venture, Beresheet was a "national and historic achievement."

161 comments

  1. Seriously? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    "containing the Bible, children's drawings, Israel's national anthem and blue and white flag, as well as memories of a Holocaust survivor" - What, no tiny bagels?

    1. Re:Seriously? by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 1

      Named Beresheet,

      Does a Beresheet on the moon?

    2. Re: Seriously? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Jews in Spaaaaaaaaccceeee"

    3. Re:Seriously? by OldMugwump · · Score: 1

      Bagels are a New York thing. The Israelis didn't hear about it until 20 years later.

      --
      "Shoot, a fella could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff."
    4. Re:Seriously? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually "be reshit" ("in the beginning") doesn't have a long i. Biblical Hebrew had long vowels but not in this word. I'm guessing the strange spelling is because "bereshit" didn't pass some clbuttic filter.

    5. Re:Seriously? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually they're a Viennese thing. Beigl is a German or Idish word.

    6. Re:Seriously? by johnsie · · Score: 1

      Why are they sending a French flag to the moon?

    7. Re:Seriously? by Local+ID10T · · Score: 1

      Why are they sending a French flag to the moon?

      So that the Nazis in the secret base on the dark side of the moon know that they aren't a threat...

      --
      "You want to know how to help your kids? Leave them the fuck alone." -George Carlin
  2. only 100 million by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    to launch a compact car with no one in it?

    Clearly the species can finally leave this rock

  3. Well, yes, but by Brett+Buck · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "The superpowers who managed to land a spacecraft on the moon have spent hundreds of millions."

        Yes, 50 years ago, and having to develop the entire thing from scratch instead of opening a bunch of catalogs and buying the parts.

    1. Re:Well, yes, but by bunyip · · Score: 2

      Exactly what I thought. Just wondering if Berzerkistan could buy a launch from Elon Musk and land a thumb drive on the moon, claiming 5th place?

      A.

    2. Re:Well, yes, but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      'entire thing from scratch "

      yeah you know except for the whole ICBM program created by captured germans

      but yeah

      from scratch

    3. Re:Well, yes, but by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      didn't know from Germany to England was "Intercontinental". That is scratch.

    4. Re:Well, yes, but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

      ^--- THIS ---^. I'm old enough to see through the propaganda but I know the masses won't and that is quite frankly disturbing.

      Keep the politics and virtue signaling bullshit out of space. The Jewish Bible nor the Holocaust have nothing to do with humanity or whatever political cover story they are going with.

    5. Re:Well, yes, but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      He's not talking about the V2. He's talking about Operation Paperclip.

    6. Re:Well, yes, but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Israel lives off US welfare. So this is really a US mission to the moon.

    7. Re:Well, yes, but by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 2

      yeah you know except for the whole ICBM program created by captured germans

      And Werner Von Braun hanged the five slowest Jewish slaves in front of his rocket factory to get them to work faster cite. Skip forward a few years and he's the Director of Marshall Spaceflight and Huntsville is naming their civic center after him.

      Buying a ride from Elon is a bullshit claim to be in the group of countries who actually built rockets that went to the moon, but there is a certain value to doing it, long after the Nazis are all dead.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    8. Re:Well, yes, but by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Got part of the moon named too.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    9. Re:Well, yes, but by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 2

      The superpowers who managed to land a spacecraft on the moon have spent hundreds of millions.

      Yes, 50 years ago, and having to develop the entire thing from scratch instead of opening a bunch of catalogs and buying the parts.

      And... if I recall correctly, one of those superpowers sent several spacecraft, with people in them, to the moon and back.

      So, while it will be a great achievement, don't break an arm jerking yourself off (to quote Rick Sanchez) as you still spent $100M on a "probe" to be launched on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster (a US company) -- while the super powers, of which you speak, built their own back in the day.

      Congrats, but settle down.

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    10. Re: Well, yes, but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I mean it has just as much to do with humanity as the original missions did. We the capacity to do great things, inspire hope, and build on past successes. We also have the capilacity to ignore hungry school kids and divert massive amounts of money into ego projects sending people on rocket rides.

      Yayy.......morons

    11. Re:Well, yes, but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A9 manned ICBM developed before 1945 with 5,000 km range :
      http://www.astronautix.com/a/a9a10.html

      Designs beyond the A9/A10 were sketched out as well. Adding an A11 stage would have resulted in a satellite launcher. An additional A12 stage would result in a four stage vehicle with the A9 being a manned orbital space shuttle.

    12. Re: Well, yes, but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And the US won WWII only because we borrowed scientists from other countries to build the atom bomb, which changed the course of the war.

    13. Re:Well, yes, but by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 0

      And Werner Von Braun hanged the five slowest Jewish slaves in front of his rocket factory to get them to work faster

      You forgot to mention the bit where his eagerness to get to the moon was to retrieve the remains of the Nazi scientists who ended up marooned there in 1945 when the war ended.

    14. Re:Well, yes, but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      'entire thing from scratch "

      yeah you know except for the whole ICBM program created by captured germans

      but yeah

      from scratch

      Yeah, the ICBM program was not from scratch either. I understand we have the ancient Chinese to thank for inventing the rocket. But as far as I know, they didn't actually invent the wheel, the inclined plane, or the lever... we have some, probably middle eastern guys to thank for those, or Africans. So really nothing's from scratch for the last like, 300,000 years. We're all standing on the shoulders of giants so long dead, we don't even know if they HAD names, let alone what they were.

      Managing to deliver humans TO the moon, and getting them back safely to Earth, is just about as far, beyond the V2 rocket, in terms of significance of accomplishment, as the V2 rocket was beyond whatever arbitrary starting point you could pick for the German scientists you want to credit with so much of the achievement. Or farther.

    15. Re:Well, yes, but by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Developed? A couple "free energy" generators are more "developed" than the A9 was.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    16. Re:Well, yes, but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think the Holocaust has EVERYTHING to do with humanity.

    17. Re: Well, yes, but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Were those chinese and africans directly involved in the US rocket program (conveniently forgetting about the nazi thing as an extra bonus)?

    18. Re:Well, yes, but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "The superpowers who managed to land a spacecraft on the moon have spent hundreds of millions."

              'Yes, 50 years ago, and having to develop the entire thing from scratch instead of opening a bunch of catalogs and buying the parts.'

      Not quite, they got the NAZIS wholesale with their plans and rocket engines and engineers.

    19. Re:Well, yes, but by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Informative

      There is a great documentary about how the Nazis built and launched their rockets that was made by the British after the war, as a way to document the whole process so that the knowledge would not be lost.

      https://youtu.be/80DzifHHIxk

      It's absolutely fascinating. Not only did they manage to build rockets capable of reaching space, but they managed make them simple and robust enough that largely unskilled soldiers could operate them. They developed many of the basic techniques that became fundamental to all future rockets.

      Germany was an engineering powerhouse. Such a shame it was wasted on that war, and built on the back of slaves and bigotry.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    20. Re: Well, yes, but by c6gunner · · Score: 1

      That single statement shows that you know as little about the scientists involves as you do about how the war was won.

    21. Re:Well, yes, but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and let's not forget who ran these programs for the US and USSR...

    22. Re: Well, yes, but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow, I know you're joking though...
      You have to know the Nuking of Japan was a dastardly act made before the excuse to test the bomb was too late.
      Japan couldn't last any more, they were done.It that had the effect of scaring the allies and setting up the dividing table.

    23. Re:Well, yes, but by Red_Forman · · Score: 2

      How hard could it be to develop the paperclip? Those things are sold in packs of 100 for one dollar these days.

    24. Re:Well, yes, but by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      to be launched on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster (a US company)

      It would be rather difficult for Israel to launch things to high energy trajectories for reasons of geography. So I wouldn't blame them for the lack of capability. I mean, they *could* technically do it, but then some people would scream bloody murder even more.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    25. Re:Well, yes, but by Shotgun · · Score: 1

      Everything is obvious after you've seen how it is done.

      --
      Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
      Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
    26. Re: Well, yes, but by Shotgun · · Score: 1

      For WW1, you have some standing.

      For WW2, you havn't a friggen' clue what you're talking about.

      --
      Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
      Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
    27. Re:Well, yes, but by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Baikonur, the first and largest operational space launching facility, is at 45*N. Tel Aviv is at 32*N. KSC is at 28* N, only 4 degrees to the south.
      Geography has *nothing* to do with it.

    28. Re:Well, yes, but by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Clearly you pay too much attention to latitude and not enough to longitude.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    29. Re:Well, yes, but by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      very hard, Microsoft tried and failed

    30. Re:Well, yes, but by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      and I was talking about Germany not having an ICBM program. Unless C means country.

    31. Re:Well, yes, but by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      One french prisoner made that claim about Von Braun

      Maybe he was a bit biased and was lying.

  4. it's a snip by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's about time someone circumcised the man in the moon

  5. errr... by iggymanz · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So the Iz are going to put a thing atop an American rocket and claim they "reached the moon"?

    1. Re:errr... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      First, that $100 million isn't theirs when countries like the USA have been literally GIVING them billions every year.
      Second, Israel has been MURDERING palestinians, and STEALING their land for decades.
      So Israel can suck a dick.

    2. Re:errr... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The world rides on the coattails of American STEM advancement methodologies.

      But as timitidy, fear, and hatred has crept in, it seems progress is slowing.

    3. Re:errr... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      So the Iz are going to put a thing atop an American rocket and claim they "reached the moon"?

      As if it's not enough, the thing blasted off from Florida, and not from Jerusalem.

      If it's claimed to be an ISRAELIS project, MAKE IT SO !!!

    4. Re: errr... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      At what point does a privately funded excursion become a national achievement?

    5. Re:errr... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, they will be hiring SpaceX to do the CGI just like when they faked Starman and in a few years time when they fake the BKR do a loop around the moon with the Japanese billionaire fraud.

    6. Re:errr... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You've been murdering people and stealing their land and sucking dicks for decades. Go Israel!

    7. Re:errr... by tal_mud · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's not as simple as you think. Building the lunar lander is a major achievement. Indeed, google offered a $30,000,000 prize for the lunar lander part even after taking into account the existence of commercial launch systems. See: https://lunar.xprize.org/prize.... The Israeli team missed the deadline, but, if their lander succeeds, will have achieved the goal.

    8. Re: errr... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It is a fair and legitimate claim to make, that it is an Israeli achievement. It includes Israeli building and Israeli funding.

      If there's a threshold of 100% built by, or 100% funded by, modern rocketry would be expressed quite differently, with variants like:

      - travel to the Space Station is a triumph of Russian technology with its cohort of rent-paying passengers

      - the nukes in Pakistan that the Saudis allegedly have on a five- minute phone call, are a triumph of Saudi funding and are therefore actually Riyadh's.

      As for ownership and legitimacy claims based on 'it's not their money', it was oil revenue that funded the Saudis, from the West's petrol pumps. Want to ask Islamabad to hand over their nukes 'cause your Chevys and Fords paid for them?

      Some of the discussion here on /. is just silly.

    9. Re:errr... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It's a group of privately funded Israeli scientists leading the mission, rather than the state of Israel. Also, the headline is self-contradictory in that sense.

    10. Re: errr... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      The American contribution apparently ends 10% along the way to the Moon. So if it succeeds, is calling the success 90% Israeli going to keep you happy?

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    11. Re:errr... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Unlike you, you little thieving murdering "law" writing statist libtard SJW PIECE OF SHIT,
      some of us have been advocating actual peace and non agression and non theft and non force murder etc... through education and voluntaryism.

    12. Re: errr... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Should be closer to 0.1%. The moon is pretty far away, and like most space travel 99.8% of that trip is coasting. In fairness, that last 0.1% can get pretty tense since a soft rocket landing is more technically difficult than a launch.

    13. Re: errr... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Well, even just coasting in continuous sunlight is not trivial to engineer for with a custom spacecraft bus. And that last part has historically been attempted extremely infrequently, so much so that I'd argue it deserves fairly high marks if successful, surely higher than GTO insertions, of which you get two dozens a year or so.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    14. Re: errr... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Also, the 0.1% argument does not seem to make sense to me considering that neither 99.9% of the distance nor 99.9% of the delta V will be arranged for by the launch vehicle. 0.1% of what exactly are we talking about here?

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    15. Re: errr... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually there's 0.0% chance Israel would even exist without US support, even ongoing. So your math is as stupid as your calculus about landing on Mars vs. Melbourne, Australia. You have no actual concept of what's involved.

      Be happy, you're a moron.

    16. Re: errr... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You seem to forget (or celebrate your ignorance) that Israel was NOT supported by the USA until the late 70's.
      The Independence, Sini and 6 day wars were fought and won using British / French planes and arms.

    17. Re:errr... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They can put it atop any rocket they want - Indian, Chinese, Russian..
      You're just a driver on the set of this movie. Don't expect an invite to the Oscars.

    18. Re:errr... by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Great idea. You know that rockets are launched towards the east, right?

      Let's imagine for a moment that it fails and comes down prematurely. Now take a globe and find out what countries would be the most likely recipients of this guaranteed to explode rocket launched from Israel.

      Yeah. That would end well.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    19. Re: errr... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Ironically, the Independence War (you mean the conflicts around 1948, I presume?), if I remember correctly, was heavily helped by surplus German equipment.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    20. Re: errr... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's 0.0% chance Israel would even exist without US support, even ongoing. You want to pretend that's not true, go ahead. Just realize what you're doing. Fantasizing about independence. It's a big flaw of yours.

    21. Re:errr... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Has he? In what way?
      Nice try, Shlomo... nobody believes you any more...
      Your endless crimes against your goyim are coming to an end real soon... You can censor the internet all you want, start locking people up for telling the truth about the Eternal Jew, but it's too late... your days are numbered.

    22. Re:errr... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      "As if it's not enough, the thing blasted off from Florida, and not from Jerusalem."

      That's because there are more Jews in Florida than in Israel.

    23. Re: errr... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, the war of 48. They had Czech-built BF109 FokkeWolfs

    24. Re: errr... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      There was a shitload of infantry firearms involved, too.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    25. Re:errr... by Octorian · · Score: 1

      That's why Israel's own rockets launch to the west. However, those mostly get used to launch spy satellites. They also have a smaller payload capacity.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shavit

    26. Re: errr... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not to mention some painted broomsticks and wooden "artillery" pieces that the Jordanians decided looked Dangerous.

      captcha: cowardly

    27. Re:errr... by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Launching to the west means that you need more fuel. And going to the moon is already something that takes a lot of fuel, even if you don't have to compensate for Earth's rotation twice.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    28. Re: errr... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The American contribution apparently ends 10% along the way to the Moon. So if it succeeds, is calling the success 90% Israeli going to keep you happy?

      You Jewish Kyosuke?

    29. Re:errr... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is like complaining that you didn't make a salad, unless you've grown every single ingredient.

  6. Mel Brooks called it by paiute · · Score: 3, Funny
    --
    If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
  7. I reach by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    mun every day in KSP and it only costs me whooping 20 bucks!

  8. shoah = the big lie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    not even the moon is safe from (((the tribe))) and their satanic evil
    but it's too late, the goyim know and can't be shut down
    turns out that the final solution is the intertubes

    1. Re:shoah = the big lie by gibbsjoh · · Score: 2

      For some reason there's no option to report this post, so I'll have to settle for telling this a/c to take a long walk off a short cliff. Fuck off, troll.

      --
      -- "...I'm a bad guy because I, well, I sing some rock-and-roll songs." M. Manson
  9. Wonder what they will find there... by thesjaakspoiler · · Score: 1
  10. No I Can't Type More Than That For My Subject by mentil · · Score: 1

    Beresheet will also deposit a "time capsule" of digital files the size of coins containing the Bible, children's drawings, Israel's national anthem and blue and white flag, as well as memories of a Holocaust survivor.

    Wrong. What you have are transistors, and the hope that someone will be able to read their on-off state at some indeterminate point in the future.

    --
    Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
    1. Re:No I Can't Type More Than That For My Subject by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      *electronics that can be interpreted as representations of XYZ

      Actually, no, I have a better jab:

      >Beresheet will also deposit a thumb drive.

    2. Re:No I Can't Type More Than That For My Subject by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 1

      they thought of that. there are manpa-

      nevermind.

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    3. Re:No I Can't Type More Than That For My Subject by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Which will contain a copy of this song

    4. Re:No I Can't Type More Than That For My Subject by TurboStar · · Score: 2

      Wrong. What you have are transistors, and the hope that someone will be able to read their on-off state at some indeterminate point in the future

      Why would they send transistors instead of physically encoded data like everyone else? All of our space junk has miniature data of some sorts. My name is written out in plain text on a piece of silicon floating around in space right now. It seems likely that space-faring animals of the future will have figured out light refraction and be able to read all this.

      Flash and other re-writable technology doesn't last long and anyone who can build a moon lander will know this. So if they sent up transistors it'll be old school ROM or PROM tech which will be visible under magnification. Nothing in the article indicated they did this though. Sounds like they made some little CDs or just laser etched the text on little discs/coins.

  11. Re:Apartheid alternatives from the moon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They will claim that Palestinians unlawfully appropriated lunar material and raze a few more towns with bulldozers for good measure.

  12. It's unkind by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    30% of all men on Earth have been subjected to circumcision (pretty much all without their consent). Of all circumcised men:

    * 68.8% are Muslims.

    * 12.8% are non-Muslim, non-Jewish citizens of the United States.

    * 0.8% are Jewish.

    * 17.6%, the rest, are mainly from backwards 3rd-world "cultures" with a long history of ritual genital cutting. Besides a smattering of men across the rest of the English-speaking world (especially Canada), the shiningest star among this group is Korea, which began cutting up boys' penises after the Americans occupied their country.

    1. Re:It's unkind by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 1

      the shiningest star among this group is Korea, which began cutting up boys' penises after the Americans occupied their country.

      Tiger penises too hard to come by, I guess...

    2. Re:It's unkind by Cederic · · Score: 1

      17.6%, the rest, are mainly from backwards 3rd-world "cultures"

      So much like most of the rest then.

      People need to stop mutilating children.

  13. Re:Antiscience advocate Brett Buttfuck here to tea by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 2

    There is no such thing as "from scratch" in engineering. They have stood on the shoulders of giants in case your nazi ass missed it

    Actually, in the case of rocketry, most of the world stood on the shoulders of Nazis, in case your giant ass missed it.

  14. Don't be snarky. by az-saguaro · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So far, the posts in response to this article are all sarcastic and cynical, mocking the claim of "reaching the moon" when they are just hitching a ride on SpaceX, not to mention riding the coattails of big nation states that have spent billions over half a century to develop the foundational technologies and do it all in grander style. But think about the historical significance of this. It may be small potatoes in a sense, but it is indeed the first time that a non-governmental low budget endeavor gets there (if it succeeds). The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. You cannot do something the 2nd and 3rd time without doing it the first time. Making inexpensive or commercially feasible trips to the moon with some regularity will depend on projects of this magnitude and expense, and at some point, somebody does it first, and this is it.

    True, they are not running the whole show themselves. The launch comes from a an established carrier. But therein is another wondrous thing. A government rocket is not lifting them, a private enterprise is. And don't forget that with complex technologies, businesses are highly interconnected and dependent on each other - no one company can do it all themselves - even NASA needed thousands of subcontractors to get Apollo there and back. Furthermore, all they are doing with SpaceX is getting off the ground, and nowadays, that's easy. Not so easy is dropping out of orbit and landing, without overshooting or crashing, and the Israeli craft will do that on its own. And, a small potatoes budget forces you to be clever, and how they are going to get from low orbit to the moon on minimum weight and fuel is itself inspiring, lessons to be learned for all the moon trekkers who hope to follow.

    If nothing else, this kind of event can inspire other pioneers and entrepreneurs that it can be done. Something hasn't been done until the moment it is done, and whoever did it, they were the first. Their pride is understandable. You would be too if you were the first, and we would equally applaud and be inspired by you. This opens the gates, and more will follow. Who knows, next could be the Jamaican bob-rocket team. (And instead of Tang, rum and mauby.)

    1. Re:Don't be snarky. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "You cannot do something the 2nd and 3rd time without doing it the first time. " - https://www.computer.org/csdl/proceedings/lics/2011/4412/00/4412a409.pdf

    2. Re:Don't be snarky. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Voooooooooooooos-BOOM!

    3. Re:Don't be snarky. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      would it be too hard to stop the crap posting to after you finish atlas shrugged?

    4. Re:Don't be snarky. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If nothing else, this kind of event can inspire other pioneers and entrepreneurs that it can be done.

      Anything needing to be pointed out as inspiring is, necessarily, not inspiring.

  15. Re:Antiscience advocate Brett Buttfuck here to tea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Actually no, they stood on the back of a lot of Greeks, Arabs, and countless others who came first, in case your uneducated ethnocentric no-history-or-mathematics-knowing ass missed it. You know nothing lol.

    You don't even know why Von Braun was successful, just that he was. You're a pathetic pseudo-researcher, lol.

  16. Moon gonna get served by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sources say they will be delivering a subpoena and demanding infinite financial recompense from the moon for "hovering idly by" during the war.

  17. Re: Antiscience advocate Brett Buttfuck here to te by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 2

    If you look at the history of mathematics, Arabs and Greeks optimistically ended their math education in the third year of high school. The really interesting things were discovered after 1700, perhaps with the exception of calculus, which was discovered after 1600.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  18. Re:A joke by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Put all the JEWS on the MOON.
    Lots of free land for them to steal back and forth amongst themselves there too.
    JEWISH QUESTION solved.

  19. Re: Antiscience advocate Brett Buttfuck here to te by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Higher level math still depends on lower level foundations being discovered first. Who asked you what you thought was more interesting? That wasn't the question.

    By the way, your random assertion that "it's easier to land on Mars than in Melbourne, Australia" that you fought so hard to try to convince everybody wasn't totally a crock of shit? Yeah.

    That's what I remember as your greatest contribution, your most "interesting" nugget of bullshit opine. To be honest, your take on mathematics doesn't come close.

  20. Re: Antiscience advocate Brett Buttfuck here to t by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    Higher level math still depends on lower level foundations being discovered first. Who asked you what you thought was more interesting? That wasn't the question.

    One might successfully argue that it's the other way round, as evidenced, e.g., by partially-historically-inverse presentation of linear algebra in universities, where you start with the low-level foundations discovered last and then you follow up with some of the specific results discovered way earlier (before you exhaust them and follow on with specific results obtained in the 20th century).

    By the way, your random assertion that "it's easier to land on Mars than in Melbourne, Australia" that you fought so hard to try to convince everybody wasn't totally a crock of shit? Yeah. That's what I remember as your greatest contribution, your most "interesting" nugget of bullshit opine. To be honest, your take on mathematics doesn't come close.

    My take on mathematics doesn't come close to a claim I never made? Wow, something I said is different from something I *never* said? How surprising and insightful! :-p

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  21. Re: Antiscience advocate Brett Buttfuck here to te by Freischutz · · Score: 2

    If you look at the history of mathematics, Arabs and Greeks optimistically ended their math education in the third year of high school. The really interesting things were discovered after 1700, perhaps with the exception of calculus, which was discovered after 1600.

    Really? It is fascinating to see that somebody managed to cram so much arrogance and ignorance combined into a single statement. Algebra is an invention with roots in ancient Babylonia and with contributions from the Greeks but that in it's modern form largely came from the Islamic world. It is considered to be a critical invention because it is the gate keeper to all higher mathematics. As for Geometry, where the Greeks made a a huge contribution, it is kind of descriptive of it's importance that one of the two times Isaac Newton was heard to laugh is when somebody asked what the point of Euclid's Elements element's was. Newton once said: "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants", he had a point. None of this stuff that you consider uninteresting was trivial or obvious at the time it was discovered and your 'interesting stuff' would not be possible without it.

  22. Re: Antiscience advocate Brett Buttfuck here to t by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "it's easier to land on Mars than in Melbourne, Australia" - Said by you. Fought tooth and nail by you. The math behind it? Says you're wrong, on every conceivable level.

    So, 2 possibilities :
    1, you're a nut who doesn't know much that's real and trolls slashdot in an epic waste of everyone's time in a head-in-ass fashion, or 2, you'll say fucking anything because you're some different type of head case.

    Frankly I don't think I need more data. It doesn't matter which.

    Go on, deny it. We can play that game next.

  23. Re: Antiscience advocate Brett Buttfuck here to te by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    Algebra is an invention with roots in ancient Babylonia and with contributions from the Greeks but that in it's modern form largely came from the Islamic world.

    Invention? You mean discovery? And by "modern form", you mean the discoveries of al-Galois? Oh wait, that was Evariste Galois and it was the 1800s already!

    one of the two times Isaac Newton was heard to laugh

    A cool story, but all it illustrates is mostly our shoddy history record. Note that I didn't say a word about Elements or Euclid, so I'm not sure what was your point there. Purely geometric methods never got to the point that you needed for a large portion of rocket engineering problems the solution of which made Von Braun and his projects successful.

    Also, none of the things you wrote contradict what I wrote, which is what I'm pretty sure is basically a statement from Keith Devlin that I read some years ago. So don't complain to me about that.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  24. Re:The most painful cut by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You have to understand, no Jewish woman would ever take anything that's not 10% off.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  25. Re: Antiscience advocate Brett Buttfuck here to t by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    Said by you.

    Actually, it's said by you. YOU wrote it right there. I can't edit your comments.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  26. Misleading title by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    - "Israel" is not launching anything. It's a privately funded endeavour. The title is misleading.
    - SpaceX provides only the ride outside the atmosphere. From there it is the the SpaceIL team takes control and flies the lander all the way to the moon.
    - The mission is to build a moon lander, not a launcher. So using SpaceX for launch does not contradict the goals of the project.

    The writer is an Israeli.

  27. Re: Antiscience advocate Brett Buttfuck here to t by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Would you admit it if I posted a link to you, saying it? Or would you keep lying even then I wonder?

    Do you want to find out?

  28. Re: Antiscience advocate Brett Buttfuck here to t by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    That's a hypothetical considering that you can't post such a link. But yes.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  29. 9-11 was a Jew job by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Larry Silverstein's double indemnity insrance policy is better than any motive Bin Laden ever had. And it's pretty obvious that a cave in Afghanistan doesn't provide many opportunities or the means to blow up skyscrapers in NYC.

    That's how a REAL investigation works, Now go watch more fake news on TV.

    1. Re:9-11 was a Jew job by johnsie · · Score: 1

      Bin Laden wasn't in a cave. That was just made up because nobody knew where he was. You're basic your accusation against Silverstein on circustancial evidence. However the actual hijackers were caught on camera, witnesses saw them in flight schools, calls were made from the planes and of course the airlines and airport security had data about who was on the flights. The whole thing is a little bit too complicated to be a mere insurance fraud. Most insurance scammers just burn their buildings down, they don't have planes flown into them. And if it was an insurance scam, why bother hitting the Pentagon and whatever flight 93 was aiming for? I supposed you'll say that was just a detraction... Your whole theory is based on imagination rather than solid facts.

    2. Re:9-11 was a Jew job by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There was a time when Bin Laden was in a cave, several points along the line. Why would you assert that? Ridiculous lol. Caves are natural drone-proof bunkers and his network used them all the time, including himself personally.

      There are photos of that too.

      "why bother hitting the Pentagon and whatever flight 93 was aiming for" - Because of the 2.3 Trillion dollars Donald Rumsfeld announced the day before "went missing" and was being investigated by units hit there, derp?

      READ ABOUT THIS SHIT MORON.

  30. Re: Antiscience advocate Brett Buttfuck here to te by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "geometric methods never got to the point that you needed for a large portion of rocket engineering problems" - yet without them you wouldn't get beyond that, proving the point that your arbitrary valuation is invalid.

  31. Re: Antiscience advocate Brett Buttfuck here to te by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    yet without them you wouldn't get beyond that

    History shows us that various methods were discovered multiple times independently by multiple people using different approaches, so I don't see how this statement is provable.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  32. Re:Antiscience advocate Brett Buttfuck here to tea by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 1

    The Greeks invented ballistic missiles? I guess that's why both the Americans and Soviets grabbed all the Greek rocket scientists after WWII to start their own ballistic missile programs.

  33. Re:'Holohoax' survivor - LOL by Cederic · · Score: 2

    For the record: The 'Holocaust' is not a lie.

    Educate yourself instead of sharing your idiocy on the internet.

  34. Re:Antiscience advocate Brett Buttfuck here to tea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You're an idiot.

    The Greek rocket scientists had already gone to the Moon.

  35. JEWS in SPACE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All together now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUnSGz8vW0U

    1. Re:JEWS in SPACE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually this is the link, the original submission had an unnecessary edit
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdjEPqWjTeU

      My Mel Brooks reference was ruined :(

    2. Re:JEWS in SPACE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Indeed. It's the thought that counts, though. You can have a gold star anyway.

  36. Re: Antiscience advocate Brett Buttfuck here to t by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You know arguing with an "Anonymous Coward" is fruitless right?
    There's a reason you name is shown and its isn't, they have no leg to stand on...
    History to them is problematic.
    Yeah I'm going AC too just to avoid the fools.
    Cheers M8.

  37. Re: Antiscience advocate Brett Buttfuck here to te by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Algebra is an invention

    Invention? You mean discovery?

    Algebra, like all math, is human-made. It's an artificial language and set of rules that has proven useful to describe observed phenomena. To say that algebra is a discovery is a Platonic fallacy. There are no god-made Ideas that are reflected in the abstractions humans use.

  38. Re: Antiscience advocate Brett Buttfuck here to te by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How can you "discover" a method? If methods existed before humans came up with them, who used them? Or else, how can a method that nobody uses exist?

  39. Not so fast by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I've got a feeling it'll crater faster than a probe to Mars.
    Taking all bets.

  40. Re:The most painful cut by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Funniest circumcision joke I've ever read. Would read again. A++

  41. Re: Antiscience advocate Brett Buttfuck here to te by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    your use of loling and the over the top pretentious use of grammar is irritating.

    i think you sir, and a smug peice of shit with no reason to be.

  42. Cut them off by sixsixtysix · · Score: 1

    I guess if they can afford this type of thing, they'll need no future foreign aid from the U.S.

    --
    ...
    1. Re:Cut them off by bitfist · · Score: 0

      Since the formation of the state of Israel, Palestinians have been kicked out of their home, herded into internment or executed en masse. https://www.amnesty.org/en/cou... [amnesty.org] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] Israel continues to perpetrate crimes against humanity and Slashdot is guilty of repeatedly normalizing an oppressor, as if everything is okay. When you steal land from a people, murder and execute en masse, deny them freedom and autonomy--especially when the oppressors went through went through the Shoah, you think there would be learning. I am disgusted with the Slashdot editors who collude with Israeli foreign policy and as such, they too are part of the problem and ongoing subjugation of a people. Free Occupied Palestine and hold the powerful to account. Israel is a nuclear armed state who takes billions in aid from the US and has a sophisticated military and continues to run of the largest concentration camps in the world. Slashdot readers, learn from Marek Edelman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] Never forget what happened and do not let oppressors run amok and then get 'normalized' by our media.

  43. Re: Antiscience advocate Brett Buttfuck here to te by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    Why would you need to invoke gods? For what reason? And how is it not a discovery if every individual comes independently to the same conclusion? Languages of the world are interesting in the ways in which they differ, mathematics is interesting in how it is exactly the same for everyone. It's not like, for example, the density of primes is inverse logarithmic for Europeans and constant for Polynesians. That's not "an abstraction", that's a fact of nature.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  44. It's a land grab ... by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

    ... equivalent to a gold rush.

    For those simple bastards who want to go to Mars, here's your alpha and beta site.

    Experiments on the far side (see Gary Larson) will be shielded from instrument noise generated by Earth. That's good science.

    Imagine launching payloads from the Moon to reach either the Earth or Mars or targets of opportunity.

    If China would only mention, "nuclear weapons," we could get this show on the road.

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  45. new Promised Land? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is this preparation for 2nd Exodus to the safer space?
    Looking at the trend of Israel citizens asking back for returning Spanish, Portugal , German or (omg) eastern Europe citizenship ..

  46. Funded by the US Tax Payers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just remember, Israel couldnt stand on their own with the funnelled cash from the US govt. Privately funded? yea I mean if you launder tax payers money into private contracts? Sure, ok. But in reality? no.

  47. An obvious con job by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fuck Israel and the hateful bloodthirsty bigots that live there.

    Free Palestine

  48. Re: Antiscience advocate Brett Buttfuck here to te by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And yet without those discoveries there could be nothing built on them, proving your arbitrary valuation of any single link of the chain invalid.

  49. Re: Antiscience advocate Brett Buttfuck here to te by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    To say that algebra is a discovery is a Platonic fallacy. It is an invention/collaboration. You're not a historian or epistemologist obviously.

  50. Cost comparison lost in conversion by Dan+East · · Score: 1

    I want to point out that the cost comparison was skewed in currency conversion. The article quotes a cost of £77m, followed by the statement “The superpowers who managed to land a spacecraft on the moon have spent hundreds of millions.” which is still referring to pounds. Just wanted to point out why the comparison in the summary didn't make much sense.

    --
    Better known as 318230.
  51. Re: Antiscience advocate Brett Buttfuck here to te by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    The first clause is a tautology, but not a very useful one, which makes the second clause nonsensical.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  52. Re:The most painful cut by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Racism modded up. Good job /.

  53. Re: Antiscience advocate Brett Buttfuck here to te by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    Why is it a Platonic fallacy? It's for example an "invention" that zeros and ones and additive and multiplicative inverses exist in fields? Or a matter of logical necessity? These are absolutely discoveries. These things were not made up arbitrarily based on how good someone's sleep was; they could not have been formulated in any other way.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  54. Obligatory Mel Brooks Comment by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Jews In SPACE!!!!!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUnSGz8vW0U

  55. It is not cool to normalize opression, Slashdot. by bitfist · · Score: 0

    Since the formation of the state of Israel, Palestinians have been kicked out of their home, herded into internment or executed en masse. https://www.amnesty.org/en/cou... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... Israel continues to perpetrate crimes against humanity and Slashdot is guilty of repeatedly normalizing an oppressor, as if everything is okay. When you steal land from a people, murder and execute en masse, deny them freedom and autonomy--especially when the oppressors went through went through the Shoah, you think there would be learning. I am disgusted with the Slashdot editors who collude with Israeli foreign policy and as such, they too are part of the problem and ongoing subjugation of a people. Free Occupied Palestine and hold the powerful to account. Israel is a nuclear armed state who takes billions in aid from the US and has a sophisticated military and continues to run of the largest concentration camps in the world. Slashdot readers, learn from Marek Edelman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... Never forget what happened and do not let oppressors run amok and then get 'normalized' by our media.

  56. still no jokes about... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...a Genesis Device?

  57. Re:The most painful cut by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Funniest circumcision joke I've ever read. Would read again. A++

    What is best game to play with a Jewish Waitress? Just the tip.

  58. j00 slave by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    your emotional commitment to the Big Lie is showing
    your world is built on false premises
    the truth will set you free

  59. Re: Antiscience advocate Brett Buttfuck here to t by Seewhatidonehere · · Score: 0

    Discoveries of an entirely human made system of describing how our surroundings work. Clearly nature does not need mathematics to exist since all of the discoveries that human made by using mathematics are purely random but nontheless essential elements of a literally endless sea of imaginary numbers. So the use of the word discovery is correct here. The rule/set/law has already been there but just unrecognised by human.