Israel reaching for the moon

Kfir Damari, a communication systems engineer, has a dream: to land a miniature spacecraft on the moon sometime in 2013. Damari is one of the founders of Team SpaceIL, a non-profit organization representing Israel in the Google Lunar X Competition. The prize: 20 million U.S. dollars to the first of the 26 international teams currently registered that lands an unmanned craft on the moon, moves it a minimum of 500 meters across the lunar surface and transmits live high-resolution images back to earth. "It's a tough mission, but I believe that if everyone in Israel joins hands it's possible," Damari told Xinhua. It is exactly the kind of entrepreneurial spirit that Israel, a country largely void of natural resources, counts on to make it a global leader in technological innovation. The two other men behind the initiative are Yonatan Winetraub, 25, a systems engineer at Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and a graduate of NASA's International Space University, and Yariv Bash, 31, a computer scientist and electronics engineer. The three first met at an innovation conference held by IAI a year ago. They describe the lander as a nano-satellite, whose design was revealed at the project's official inauguration ceremony on Thursday. The vessel weighs 100 kg, 80 percent of which are fuel, and is outfitted with rocket boosters and a panoramic camera. "It's somewhat of a cellular phone sitting on a large fuel tank. All the technology that we require is basically contained in a typical smartphone with its communication and imaging features," Damari said. Launched in 2007, the Lunar X Prize aims to encourage space enthusiasts and engineers worldwide to develop cheap technologies for robotic space exploration. The Israelis have slated a modest 15 million U.S. dollars for the endeavor, 90 percent of which must come from private contributions according to the competition's rules. They have already raised 3.5 million dollars. The fact that they have formed a non-profit NGO in itself is worthy of praise. Most other teams have obtained the patronage of private corporations for whom money is not a problem, with some reportedly allotting up to 100 million U.S. dollars. To compensate for the disparities in funding, Damari and his partners have enlisted the support of 120 local volunteers, many of them engineers holding top positions in the technological and scientific community as well as the country's leading defense industries. Rona Ramon, the widow of Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon killed aboard the Columbia Space Shuttle in 2003, was one of the sponsors too. In a bid to keep costs down, SpaceIL is heavily relying on the existing knowledge accumulated by Israel's defense industries over the past decades in building and launching mainly small, lightweight communications and military surveillance satellites into space. The challenge, Damari said, is to take that know-how a step further. The professionals who have volunteered for the project, among them some of Israel's most revered space experts, are currently grappling with several issues, including the ignition system, optic-visual navigation, beaming imagery to earth and the intricacies of enabling the nano-satellite a smooth lunar landing. SpaceIL is still searching for a third party that they will lease to launch their vehicle into space. Once there, they will have to navigate it to the moon on their own. While 20 million U.S. dollars is a major motivator for anyone, the Israelis said they're not seeking personal gain, but rather plan to invest the prize money in the vision that originally prompted their registration in December last year: inspiring the country's younger generation to pursue engineering and the sciences and to dream big, just like Neil Armstrong did when he disembarked from the Apollo 11 and took the first step on the moon in 1969. The funds, they said, will be funneled to educational programs that seek to rejuvenate youths' interest in science disciplines, which have been on the decline in the country's high schools in recent decades. "We hope to attract the next generation of kids, to enable them to be engineers and scientists and to make sure that we have more people that can build spaceships in Israel in the future," said Damari. He and the other men behind the initiative also acknowledge that their motives are no less driven by patriotism. Winning the Lunar X has the potential to create national pride and put Israel "on the map as a start-up nation" by accomplishing a feat reserved for superpowers. "The moon is something you see every day. I think that for me personally, space exploration is the way to enlist the nation to do something that has not yet been done," said Damari, who started programming aged six and wrote his first computer virus aged 11. "It's also about exploring new borders, going the distance. (The project) will leverage Israel's space industry. I'm sure that all the industries that will partner with us will learn a lot and develop new applications, especially for the civilian market," he said. On Thursday, Israeli President Shimon Peres, whose name has become synonymous with the nation's hi-tech industries, honored the trio by unveiling their model at the ceremony held at MABAT -- IAI's missiles and space division near Tel Aviv. "More than Israel is leading technology, it is likely to lead Israel. It's the key to our economy ... If they win the prize, and I'm sure they will, it will also reward Israel with the deepest appreciation and the best deterrence," Peres told a crowd of senior executives from local defense industries. "I admire your audacity and vision," he complimented the three scientists. Will they realize their ambition? Damari expressed humble optimism, "It's not easy, but certainly possible ... We believe we can win."