On Sunday, February 23, 2014, JPC hosted Yariv Bash and Daniel Saat (the Co-Founder and the Director of Business Development of SpaceIL, respectively) who talked about their mission to land the world’s smallest, smartest spacecraft on the moon and to inspire a generation along the way.
If Israel has recently been nicknamed Startup Nation, Yariv Bash and Daniel Saat took it a step further, when they disclosed SpaceIL: The ambitious initiative to land an Israeli satellite on the moon. Bash and Saat elaborated on the unique features of the Israeli project – the small size of the satellite, the relatively cheap investment compared to others, and the educational repercussions of the project – and hinted that the chances of Israel to win this global race are pretty good.
About SpaceIL :
SpaceIL is an Israeli nonprofit founded at the end of 2010, when three young engineers with the dream of landing the first Israeli spacecraft on the Moon entered the Google Lunar X Prize (GLPX) competition. In just three years, the organization has scaled into a national movement comprised of nearly twenty full-time staff, over 250 volunteers, and a network of hundreds of renowned academics, business leaders, and industry experts.
Aside from landing on the moon, SpaceIL’s collective vision is to create a new Israeli “Apollo Effect,” inspiring the next generation in Israel and around the world to think differently about science, engineering, technology and math. Despite its technological excellence, Israel faces a severe need for more scientists and engineers. SpaceIL is committed to using the potential prize money to promote science and scientific education in Israel, to ensure that Israel will continue to live up to its reputation for excellence in these fields.
Until now, only global superpowers with billion dollar space programs have landed on the moon. SpaceIL intends to show the world that this same accomplishment can be achieved for a relatively tiny budget, and that any private group, small country or university can get involved in space exploration.
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