Yanki Margalit, chairman of SpaceIL "The collaboration with Bezeq will help us meet the tremendous technological challenge we face and inspire the younger generation"

Margalit said these things at a press conference on the occasion of Bezeq's entry into partnership in the project led by the SpaceIL association to launch a spacecraft to the moon as part of the LUNAR X-PRIZE competition. Bezeq's assistance will be, among other things, in exposing the project to the general public, including teenagers. In addition, Margalit calls on the general public to contribute to complete the necessary amount * Bezeq will assist SpaceIL in establishing communication infrastructures

Bezeq and the SpaceIL association announced today (Monday) a strategic cooperation, in the framework of which Bezeq will provide SpaceIL with an advanced communication infrastructure during the mission to fly the spacecraft to the moon and will support the educational activities of the association.

SpaceIL is the only Israeli representative participating in the international competition Google Lunar X-Prize, in the race to land an unmanned spacecraft on the moon, which total prizes in the global competition is 30 million dollars. The team is committed to donating the winnings to the promotion of science and technological and scientific education in Israel and aims to inspire, through the project, the children and youth who will form the future generation of scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians in Israel, like the inspiration given by Neil Armstrong's landing at the time - which was called the "Apollo effect" . Dozens of teenagers are already involved in the technological work, and in addition, more than 25,000 children and teenagers from schools all over the country were exposed to the project.

As part of its contribution to the project, Bezeq will be responsible for transferring the broadcasts from the satellite station, where they will arrive from the spacecraft hundreds of thousands of kilometers away, to the control center in Yehud. This is a complex transmission that requires reliable and durable technology and infrastructure. Beyond that, the required infrastructure must transmit the signals with minimum delay and delay, to enable real-time control of the spacecraft, especially during the critical phase of landing. In addition, the unique infrastructure will allow two-way transmission, while transmitting HD content live to Earth. For this purpose, Bezeq will use the Fiber NGN infrastructure, based on optical fibers.

The financial scope of the project is estimated at about 30 million dollars, much lower than other space projects. So far, significant donations have been collected from private parties, companies, academic institutions and the Israel Space Agency. SpaceIL continues the journey to harness the industry and raise additional donations to make the project possible. Bezeq joins other key professional companies and entities that are already taking part in the project including: the Aerospace Industry, the Weizmann Institute, the Technion, Tel Aviv University, Ben-Gurion University, Raphael, Elbit and Gilat. The extraordinary collaboration is in fact the first time that representatives from all the bodies related to the Israeli space industry have joined together.
SpaceIL has recently successfully completed a Preliminary Design Review conducted with the cooperation of the main parties involved in the design and construction of the spacecraft and mainly the aerospace industry. This survey is an important and significant milestone. The survey is necessary in order to move from the initial planning phase to the detailed planning phase, to the procurement phase of the hardware and components and moving on to the actual construction, which will be physically carried out in the TAA factories.

Following this, today the technological team of the project revealed the first details regarding the journey to the moon and the unique technologies to be incorporated into the Israeli spacecraft, which is expected to be the smallest ever launched beyond orbit around the Earth.

Bezeq will carry out an extensive activity in the educational field, which will include the integration of Bezeq employees in the association's voluntary activities and the inclusion of the project's contents in 14 community knowledge and communication centers of the "Apple" association established by Bezeq, as well as in the framework of the 'A computer for every child' project, which Bezeq helps finance . In addition, as part of the collaboration, the project will be revealed to the general public, among other things through the special sponsorship of Bezeq in the program "The Voice", on the Bezeq website (www.bezeq.co.il) and extensive digital marketing activity on the company's websites and Facebook page.

Yanki Margalit, chairman of SpaceIL, said today: "We welcome the trust of the Bezeq management in the unique project of landing the first Israeli spacecraft on the moon and hope that the extraordinary cooperation will help us meet the tremendous technological challenge we face and inspire the younger generation, and of course - bring A lot of pride for all the people of Israel."

"The goal in joining Bezeq is to increase public awareness, both for the purpose of promoting the project itself, which is being done through the SPACEIL association, but mainly to create the SPACEIL effect, which, like the Apollo effect, will also cause children to want to learn math, engineering and science," Yanki Margalit says.

According to him, the estimate today is that it will be possible to launch the small spacecraft to the moon in 2015 "Being the third or fourth country to land on the moon is the most amazing thing both in terms of image and contribution to the security of the country and its economy, and also to create a space industry in Israel. The next high-tech will be the high-tech of biotechnology, space and energy. If we bring more teenagers and scientists we can develop a space industry in Israel." Margalit thanked the over 200 volunteers who help make the dream a reality.

In response to the journalists' question, Margalit said that so far the association has collected about 20 million dollars, and that another 10 million dollars are missing to complete the development and carry out the launch. He called on all the people of Israel to donate through the Facebook page of the SpaceIL association.

Ran Goraon, Deputy CEO of Bezeq, said today: "Bezeq's connection to SpaceIL is an expression of our trust in the people behind the 'crazy' idea of ​​landing an Israeli spacecraft on the moon. This is an amazing project, which helps in educational and value promotion, and is connected to Bezeq's long-standing activity in the field. We will also help the SpaceIL people to set up advanced communication infrastructures suitable for the huge challenge they have taken on".

"The connection between Bezeq and SPACEIL started at the innovation exhibition Bezeq Expo 2011 and then Yanki in his way pulled and pulled us in and we are very happy to be the first commercial body to join the project. Bezeq is in a project with two legs - one - the promotion of Bezeq's leading values ​​and innovation, both on the marketing side and in the aspect of contributing to the community, and we will connect the project with our donation to the Tapuah Association, and we will also expose the children participating in this project to SPACEIL. In addition, Bezeq will provide fiber optic infrastructure from the reception stations to the control center so as not to add to the delay of the signal coming from the moon."

Kafir Damari, Co-Director of Marketing and Education at SPACEIL, thanked Bezeq and informed that "the last few weeks have been a leap forward for SPACEIL as far as engineering is concerned, we completed a very large technological survey together with the aviation industry. And now we can move forward with the planning and go out with the procurement of some of the components.

The mission consists of three stages: leaving the earth, navigating the vast distance and finally landing. The launch from the earth will be done by hitchhiking in a rocket that will launch a communication satellite or a large photography satellite. When that satellite is released, our spacecraft will also be released with it and from there everything is our responsibility. We will wait for the moon to be at the appropriate point, we will carefully activate the engines to reach orbit around it. We have a window of only 25 kilometers, into which we will have to enter and we will do so using a sensor that will photograph the surface of the moon and compare it to an existing map to know over which route we are, and another sensor that will track the angle between the moon and the earth. After we reach the route at an altitude of 100 kilometers, we will wait there until the time of sunrise arrives at the landing point, and from here, the landing is automatic.
The next stage, after the landing, was described by Sandy Chafetz, head of the avionics team in the project. Hefetz is responsible for the computers in the spacecraft: the mission computer and the video computer and the sensors connected to them.

According to her, the task that Google assigned to them is to transmit the landing film in HD, eight minutes long, this transfer requires about ten hours. Eight cameras around the spaceship will take care of the panoramic image that Google requires. After that, the spacecraft will turn on its engines again and jump to a distance of 500 meters, also according to the competition's requirement.

"After we landed, we have to fulfill Google's tasks - to transmit a 360-degree panoramic image and HD - an eight-minute film of the landing. It takes 10 hours to send the film. The cameras that exist today are six megapixel cameras, the lenses will not survive Tampak conditions, especially. You open the camera, take out all kinds of materials, and put on heating and cooling. In conjunction with Elbit-Alup, we are currently testing three types of sensors, disassembling them, placing them under space conditions and testing them. The challenge is to send two HD movies within two days. We are in a race against time to make it work.”

Yuval Kinan, VP of Technologies at Bezeq: "One of the critical parts of the mission is the communication from the spacecraft to the control room. The communication to Israel is communication on the air for a primary communication experience, and here of course we cannot intervene, however once the communication reaches one of the largest communication farms in Israel we will connect it with an optical fiber (in the Fiber NGN service) to the control center. This is in order not to increase the delay in the transmission of the images from the moon beyond the necessary minimum.

Kenan further adds that in return you will receive a flash of a symbolic gesture when inside the spacecraft there will be a package of optical fibers 500 meters long and they will be deployed when the spacecraft makes the jump to the second landing site. This will of course be the first time that optical fibers will be laid on the moon.