Beresheet

Beresheet (Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית, Bərēšīṯ, lit. 'In the beginning'; Book of Genesis) was a small robotic spacecraft built to land on the Moon. It was created by a group called SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries. The main goal was to inspire young people to learn more about science, technology, engineering, and math, known as STEM. The spacecraft carried special tools like a magnetometer, a time capsule, and a laser retroreflector to leave on the Moon.

Before its flight, the lander was called Sparrow, but it was renamed Beresheet in December 2018. It weighed about 150 kilograms without fuel, but with fuel, it was 585 kilograms. People said it was about the size of a washing machine, standing around 1.5 meters tall. The spacecraft used seven ground stations to talk to Earth, and its mission control was located in Yehud, Israel.

Unfortunately, on April 11, 2019, problems happened with the spacecraft’s gyroscopes. This caused the main engine to turn off, and the lander crashed on the Moon. Its final resting place was recorded at a specific spot on the lunar surface. Despite this, the mission showed the challenges and excitement of space exploration and encouraged many to dream big about the stars.

Planning and construction

Beresheet was created by SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries with help from the Israel Space Agency and Morris Kahn, who gave most of the money. It was the first mission to the Moon started by private groups, inspired by the Google Lunar X Prize. Even though the chance to win the prize ended before Beresheet flew, the prize later gave SpaceIL $1 million to help plan a new mission.

The whole project cost about $100 million, including the launch. In 2018, Israel said it would pay 10% of the costs, but by 2019, it was reported that the real budget was closer to $90 million, with only $2 million coming from the Israeli government.

Payload

The spacecraft carried a special "time capsule" with over 30 million pages of information. This included a full copy of the English-language Wikipedia, a special disc called the Wearable Rosetta disc, a database named PanLex, the Torah, drawings from children, a children's book, stories from a Holocaust survivor, Israel's national anthem called "Hatikvah", the Israeli flag, and a copy of the Israeli Declaration of Independence. Just before the mission, tiny living things called tardigrades were also added.

It also carried science tools, such as a magnetometer from the Weizmann Institute of Science to study magnetic fields, and a laser retroreflector from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center to help measure the distance between the Earth and the Moon.

Propulsion

The Beresheet spacecraft used special fuels called monomethylhydrazine and mixed oxides of nitrogen to power its engines. It had nine engines in total, with the main one being a liquid-propellant rocket engine that could restart. This main engine helped the spacecraft reach the Moon, slow down, and try to land.

Launch

In October 2015, SpaceIL agreed to launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida on a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster, using Spaceflight Industries. The launch happened on 22 February 2019 at 01:45 UTC, along with a communications satellite called PSN-6. The spacecraft was controlled from a command center in Yehud, Israel.

From 24 February to 19 March 2019, the spacecraft used its main engine four times to move closer to the Moon. It entered an oval-shaped orbit around the Moon on 4 April 2019 and adjusted its path to circle the Moon in a round orbit. The plan was to slow down for a gentle landing on the Moon’s surface on 11 April 2019.

Planned landing site

The planned landing site was in the northern part of the Mare Serenitatis. The area where it was supposed to land was about 15 kilometers, or 9.3 miles, wide.

Planned operations

Beresheet was planned to work on the Moon for about two days. Without special cooling, it would get too hot and stop working. Its main job was to take pictures and send them to Earth. It also planned to measure magnetic fields on the Moon.

The spacecraft also had a special mirror that would reflect lasers back to Earth. This mirror did not need power and was expected to work for many years. The team hoped to show that they could move the spacecraft to a new spot on the Moon by restarting its engine. This would help future missions travel around the Moon.

NASA contribution

NASA helped with the mission by providing a special mirror and planning to talk to Beresheet using powerful space communication tools. They also used their Moon watching spacecraft to check on Beresheet after it landed. In return, the team behind Beresheet planned to share their magnetic data with NASA.

Crash landing

On April 11, 2019, the Beresheet lander crashed onto the Moon's surface. A part called a gyroscope failed while the lander was getting ready to land. This caused the main engine to turn off for too long. Even though the team tried to fix it, the lander was too low and moving too fast to stop safely. The last pictures it sent showed the Moon just before it hit the surface.

The lander came to rest at a spot marked 32°35′44″N 19°20′59″E / 32.5956°N 19.3496°E / 32.5956; 19.3496, which was later seen in pictures taken from orbit.

Wreckage

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter flew over the area where Beresheet stopped and took pictures of the surface. When these new pictures were compared to older ones, some new features stood out. There is a faint lighter line leading to a lighter circle around a dark crater, with a small lump at one end. Scientists think the lighter circle might be gas or dust spread out by the crash.

Scientists also wondered if a small instrument called the Lunar Retroflector Array, which was part of a NASA experiment, might have survived the crash. They are using another instrument on the orbiter to send laser images to the crash site to try to find it.

In August 2019, scientists said that a capsule containing tiny micro-animals called tardigrades, which were in a special resting state, might have survived the crash and lived on the Moon for a short time. They noted that these tardigrades cannot spread across the Moon and pose no danger. However, some professionals criticized the mission for not having proper safety measures to protect other space environments. Later, in May 2021, researchers suggested that the tardigrades were likely destroyed by the force of the crash.

Beresheet 2

Main article: Bereshet 2

Originally, Beresheet was planned as a one-time mission. But on 13 April 2019, Morris Kahn announced a new mission called Beresheet 2, aiming to land on the Moon again. Later, in November 2019, it was planned to send one lander to the Moon and another to Mars.

In December 2020, SpaceIL said Beresheet 2 would launch in 2024 (then changed to 2025). It would include an orbiter and two landers, with a budget of US$100 million. More countries would work together, including the United Arab Emirates. However, by 2025, the mission was stopped because there wasn’t enough money to continue.

Minor planet

The minor planet 27050 Beresheet is named after the spacecraft.

Intellectual property

The Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) owned the design of the Beresheet spacecraft. In June 2019, IAI agreed to help the American company Firefly Aerospace build a new lunar lander using ideas from Beresheet. This new lander was called Genesis and was planned to fly on a rocket named Beta or a Falcon 9 in late 2022.

However, NASA changed its rules, so Firefly stopped working on Genesis and began designing a new lander called Blue Ghost in 2021. Even though Firefly led this new project, IAI agreed to help with the development of Blue Ghost as part of their earlier deal.

In February 2021, NASA gave Firefly Aerospace about US$93.3 million to send ten science experiments to the Moon in 2023.