Friday, April 12, 2019

Beresheet Crashes - British Get Their Revenge

The British finally got their revenge for those Mandate troubles we caused them:


"The UK contribution to the Beresheet mission is a LEROS 2b rocket engine, developed and built at Nammo Westcott in Buckinghamshire. Originally designed for manoeuvring satellites into their final orbits and for deep space missions, the LEROS will power the lander during its transfer to the lunar surface, ensure a safe landing, and will also hop the lander to its second location"



(this was a humorous satirical observation, in case someone is taking this seriously)

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UPDATE

Engineers believe a technical glitch — likely in the component that measures the spacecraft’s altitude in relation to the surface — triggered a chain reaction of events that caused the main engine of the spacecraft to stop. Without the main engine running as a braking mechanism, it was impossible to slow Beresheet’s speed from 1,700 kilometers per hour (1,000 mph) to 0 just above the moon’s surface. Engineers were able to restart the engine, but by this time the spacecraft was too close to the surface to slow down sufficiently.
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1 comment:

Liatris Spicata said...

I understand this effort was privately funded. If there is a fundraising campaign for a followup, I would like to contribute, and this blog is a place I might look for notice of such a campaign.