Recently, my wife and I hosted a party at our apartment in NYC, which was celebrating a small team which might fulfill Israel’s desire to reach the moon, in competition with much larger nations!
A video of the party can be found below:
The competition was all Google’s idea: for countries to enroll in order to reinvigorate space research! The Google competition is called Lunar X (www.googlelunarxprize.org) and its prizes total $30 million. Three young Israelis are working hard to hopefully win, and to contribute any prize money to Israeli students who are committed to science.
Israel #3 on the moon? Could be!
(Note: they're sending robots, not people -- this time)
Launching, landing and functioning on the moon may challenge Israel’s edgy technologies, but the tiny country has managed to innovate as effectively as virtually all the world’s largest countries. Amazingly, the project (called SPACE IL) is being essentially and initially implemented by three young techies: a computer and electronics engineer, a communications engineer, and a CTO and graduate of NASA, with all three at one time or another, fascinated by space issues. The leader of the group was and is involved with the company IAI ( ‘Israel Aircraft Industries’, which I was involved with in the 1960s when virtually all European airlines flew their planes to IAI just outside of Tel-Aviv, for maintenance.)
There are about 32 other teams competing for Google’s prizes from countries around the world (including of course the U.S.) with the competition is to be held around YE 2012. The Israel team is hoping to win via what it calls its micro robot (about the size of a quart of milk),which will begin its life on a commercial satellite launch, survive the landing and then follow with a set of required walking, photographing, and beaming rules . The value of this effort may be stated as follows: If it succeeds, Israel will continue to benefit from its growing world image, and from an increasing number of young students who will wish to pursue careers in technology and science.
To read much more about this competition, go to: http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/
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