Source: Weizman Institute / Ettay Nevo
The Beresheet 2 mission, led by the SpaceIL organization, continues to face financial challenges, but this week marked a small step forward toward a successful lunar landing. The team completed a simulated landing process, developed in collaboration with the Israeli company Sim.space, whose two founders were also involved in the Beresheet 1 mission, which ended with the crash of the Israeli spacecraft on the moon.
“The simulation we conducted included all stages of the autonomous landing, from detachment from the mother spacecraft at an altitude of 40 kilometers above the lunar surface to a successful touchdown, with all landing parameters carefully modeled by the simulator,” explained Moshe Medina, Director of the Beresheet 2 program, in an interview with the Davidson Institute website. “So far, the simulation has only been run on a computer. In the coming months, we will begin integrating the simulator into our hybrid lab, where we will test and validate components and systems of the landers themselves.”
For the Beresheet 2 mission, SpaceIL plans to deploy two identical landers on the Moon’s surface — one on the near side and the other, if all goes well, on the far side. The mother spacecraft, which will carry the two landers, will remain in lunar orbit and continue its mission after the landers have completed their tasks. The initial simulation focused on a landing on the near side under optimal conditions, without any malfunctions. "This simulation also served as a test run for the simulator itself, allowing us to calibrate and verify that it accurately simulates the mission. In future stages, we will run simulations of more challenging landings and various malfunctions, such as sensor failures. One of the lessons from Beresheet 1 was the importance of starting simulations in the hybrid lab as early as possible," Medina added.
A little over a year ago, the Beresheet 2 mission encountered budgetary difficulties after the main group of donors reduced their support for the project. The organization's board of directors approved continuing work on the mission at a limited scale until the end of 2024, hoping to secure by then additional funding for further development, which has not yet materialized. “We are working to secure government funding, seek another country as a partner, and attract additional donors. If donors see that we have government support and international partnership, it naturally makes it easier for them to contribute,” Medina said. “We are making progress on all three fronts, and we hope to succeed.”
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