Beresheet - Lunar Lander

thingiverse

Beresheet is set to touch down on the moon on April 11th, 2019. They've printed a scaled-down model at 40% and identified a few issues. All of these problems have been fixed in the current version. Unfortunately, they haven't had time to print it again yet but will do so within hours of publishing and post their results. Background taken from SpaceIL's Wikipedia page. Beresheet is an example of a small robotic lunar lander that aims to promote careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and to place its magnetometer and laser retroreflector on the Moon. The lander was previously known as Sparrow and was officially named Beresheet in December 2018. Its net mass is 150 kg, or around 330 pounds; when fueled at launch it weighs approximately 585 kg, or about 1,290 pounds. It's roughly the size of a washing machine. Beresheet uses seven global ground stations for communication with Earth and its Mission Control room is located in Israel Aerospace Industries' facility in Yehud, Israel. Payload The spacecraft carries a digital time capsule containing over 30 million pages of data including a full copy of the English-language Wikipedia, the Torah, children's drawings, a children's book inspired by the space launch, memoirs of a Holocaust survivor, Israel's national anthem (Hatikvah), the Israeli flag, and a copy of the Israeli Declaration of Independence. The lander also includes a magnetometer provided by the Weizmann Institute of Science to measure the Moon's local magnetic field and a laser retroreflector array supplied by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center for precise measurements of Earth-Moon distance. Propulsion Beresheet is equipped with one LEROS 2b liquid-propellant, restartable rocket engine that uses monomethylhydrazine (MMH) fuel and mixed oxides of nitrogen (MON) as an oxidizer. This single engine will be used to reach lunar orbit, decelerate for landing, and propel the lander onto the Moon's surface. Launch In October 2015, SpaceIL signed a contract with SpaceX to launch Beresheet from Cape Canaveral in Florida on a Falcon 9 booster via Spaceflight Industries. It was launched on February 22nd, 2019 at 0145 UTC (20:45 local time) as a secondary payload along with the telecom satellite PSN-6. Beresheet is being controlled by a command center located in Yehud, Israel. Between February 24th and March 19th, the main engine was used four times for orbit raising, putting its apogee close to the Moon's orbital distance. The spacecraft successfully entered an elliptical lunar orbit on April 4th, 2019. Once it reaches a circular orbit around the Moon, Beresheet will decelerate and land softly on the lunar surface, which is planned for April 11th, 2019. Planned landing site The planned landing site is located in the north part of Mare Serenitatis with a diameter of about 15 km (9.3 mi). Beresheet will operate on the Moon's surface for approximately two days as it lacks thermal control and is expected to quickly overheat. However, its laser retroreflector is a passive device that requires no electrical power and should remain functional for several decades.