Israel lunar probe crashes upon landing
- 5 years ago
SPACE — Israel's lunar probe, the Beresheet, crashed while trying to land on the moon last Thursday due to an engine glitch, according to Space.com.
Israel's Beresheet spacecraft crashed while attempting to land on the moon's surface due to a glitch that occurred just 14 kilometers from the moon.
The Beresheet team explained that preliminary reports indicated that a malfunction in one of the probe's components caused the main engine to shut down. This flaw did not allow controllers to slow down the speed at which the Beresheet was descending, causing the crash.
The engineers lost connection with the lunar probe when it was 150 meters away from the moon's surface. It was traveling at 500 kilometers per hour.
The team succeeded in restarting the Beresheet's engine right before it crashed but it was already too close to the surface and traveling too quickly for them to control its landing.
According to an Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs news release, the lander was equipped with a magnetometer that would measure the level of magnetism of moon rocks. Its main objective was to understand how and when the moon acquired its magnetic field.
Israel's Beresheet spacecraft crashed while attempting to land on the moon's surface due to a glitch that occurred just 14 kilometers from the moon.
The Beresheet team explained that preliminary reports indicated that a malfunction in one of the probe's components caused the main engine to shut down. This flaw did not allow controllers to slow down the speed at which the Beresheet was descending, causing the crash.
The engineers lost connection with the lunar probe when it was 150 meters away from the moon's surface. It was traveling at 500 kilometers per hour.
The team succeeded in restarting the Beresheet's engine right before it crashed but it was already too close to the surface and traveling too quickly for them to control its landing.
According to an Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs news release, the lander was equipped with a magnetometer that would measure the level of magnetism of moon rocks. Its main objective was to understand how and when the moon acquired its magnetic field.