91–100 of 219 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I doubt SpaceIL will be able to use anything they learned. IIUC they are out of money and can't move forward.
The prime minister of Isreal announced they'll try again in two years. So that judgment may be a little premature. Regardless knowledge transfer isn't limited to either of those.
Article subtitle: "The failure of the landing highlighted the risks of a fast and cheap approach to space exploration." I would say the opposite. Not specifically just in reference to this mission but in general. They now have a lot of experience and data to use going forward for "not much" expense. A lot of extremely expensive missions were lost because they didn't have the opportunity to iterate.
I was just watching it live, cheering for SpaceIL, it's a pity that the landing was not successful. I was part of the engineering team of the Japanese team Hakuto of the Google Lunar XPRIZE. I always wondered how it would feel to be in the control room at this time, but our launch deal fell through. I can understand what the SpaceIL engineers are going through right now. Congratulations to all the SpaceIL team for re…
Maybe not a success this time, but a lot will be learned. These types of failures are now we learn, adapt, and move forward.
The cool thing about it was that was a pet project of a few scientists doing it just because it was cool rather than a proper national project
Earlier quoted context omitted.
With a population of < 3% of the USA, < 1% of China.
To be fair the hardest and most expensive part was handled by a US company. Many small countries have put satellites up using launchers from the larger players.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Right, and I'm sure they didn't get any tech or mission critical help from the US. Don't get me wrong, good on them for doing this, but let's not pretend like this happened in a bubble away from anyone else.
If you read the article it says a SpaceX rocket brought them into space in the first place
OP was pointing out how far they got despite being such a small nation, I'm just saying that's not an accurate statement whatsoever based on what actually happened.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Contrast with Elon Musk saying the next launch of the Falcon Heavy (today) has a 5-10% chance of failure. [1] This is after it has already successfully launched once. [1] https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1115998728878321672
Or Musk persistently pointing out how he expected the first Falcon Heavy launch to explode as the most likely outcome. The early intense trauma of SpaceX failures I think taught him valuable lessons in humility when it comes to space.
It seems that they just got a new word in the dictionary: https://mobile.twitter.com/teamspaceil/status/11163129311033... I find it a bit irritating to be that cocky when it comes to space technology. Better luck next time!
Beresheet: (v) To fail dramatically after overwhelming confidence
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agree to disagree here. The whole "we're all one people thing" is a great idea and all (I'm a huge fan, would love for the U.N. to be something other than the personification of national relations and instead be a real governing body) but that's not how things work. This is Israel's project. They had assistance from other organizations/countries, but they're not doing this to better North Korea in any real way and yo…
Disagree to agree here. It should really be how things can work. We have the opportunity and possibly the unity to get together on a vision for mankind for the first time in history. Obviously there are challenges, but if all people got to vote in their respective democraties for a global push to space - I would be surprised to not see it approved.
That doesn't mean it's impossible, just that we need something to change the market, not fairy tales about international cooperation. Elon Musk's project to massively decrease the cost of space access is a step in the right direction. I don't think we'd ever get to widespread space activity if we depend on massive spending by national governments to do it.
Article subtitle: "The failure of the landing highlighted the risks of a fast and cheap approach to space exploration." I would say the opposite. Not specifically just in reference to this mission but in general. They now have a lot of experience and data to use going forward for "not much" expense. A lot of extremely expensive missions were lost because they didn't have the opportunity to iterate.
hats off to SpaceIL! I look forward to following their next go at it.
It's hard to conjure much sympathy for a nationalistic boondoggle with little scientific value that's trying to participate in a space race that ended decades ago. Now, instead of a flag, they have a commemorative crater in the desert. Talk about symbolism...