Lunar mission “Bereshit” - the search for the first lunar library started after the accident of its carrier

100 grams of slightly protected digital and analog human content with a kapton tape against 150 kg of the Bereshit apparatus and 76 kg of fuel on board when colliding with the Moon, and this, taking into account the estimated fall rates: 100 MJ (megajoules) of kinetic energy and 1000 MJ of chemical energy.

The Arch Mission Foundation is trying to figure out whether the library sent to the moon has survived and where it can be there.

In fact, this search for the lunar library contains interesting calculations of the characteristics of the fall of the Bereshit apparatus and the energy that could have been released during this accident.
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The main characteristics of the mission and lunar apparatus "Bereshit":

- the beginning of the mission: February 22, 2019;
- end of the mission: an accident occurred (falling on the moon) while attempting to land on April 11, 2019, a complete loss of communication with the device at an altitude of 149 meters;
- trajectory of movement to the moon (in fact, the maximum of the possible): complex, changeable by performing a series of maneuvers (turning on the engines for a few seconds or even minutes) to increase the apogee of its elliptical upholstery after each orbit around the Earth, then go to Lunar orbit with subsequent landing ;
- the height of the Bereshit apparatus is about 1.5 meters, the diameter is 2 meters (2.3 meters between the landing supports);
- weight 530 kilograms with fuel (fuel weight - 380 kg), 150 kg without fuel;
- scientific instruments: a magnetometer (sent a part of scientific data while the device was in orbit of the Moon and in the process of landing), an array of laser corner reflectors (the LRO probe will look for them);



- The Bereshit device was to make a soft landing on April 11, 2019 on a dark lava plain, known as the Sea of ​​Clarity, not far from the region in which the Apollo 17 missioners landed on December 11, 1972.



Unfortunately, due to a software error in the operation of the onboard computer and the engines of the Bereshit apparatus, an abnormal situation occurred during the landing, which led to the main engine disconnecting and uncontrolled fall at high speed onto the lunar surface, according to calculations from 20 to 50 km from the calculated landing site apparatus flew.

On the electronic library that flew to the moon on the apparatus "Bereshit."

In addition to two scientific instruments (magnetometer and an array of laser corner reflectors), the additional non-research payload was on board the Bereshit apparatus — the first lunar library, the Archive of Human Knowledge.

The development and implementation of this part of the lunar project was organized by the Arch Mission Foundation , which in a global sense is working to preserve information about human civilization, including creating backup libraries of human knowledge.

Using the NanoArchival technology , the Arch Mission Foundation organizations document the most important information about humanity.

Physically , the lunar library “Archive of Human Knowledge” on the “Bereshit” device is a 100-meter small (145x145 mm) envelope-container with 25 thin plates (40 microns thickness of one plate).





On the first (upper) 4 plates, information is recorded in analog format as an array of microscopic photographs, graphs, pictures, texts in various languages, including:

- basic information about the Earth and earthlings,

- linguistic data about terrestrial languages,

- texts of Israeli state documents,

- national cultural works of Israel,

- information on the participants of the Bereshit project,

- information on decoding the underlying digital recordings.

Images on these 4 plates can be easily seen at a magnification of a hundred times under a simple microscope.

The second part of the library is digital (about 200 GB of information in unpacked form, 100 GB in the archive) and consists of the 21st plate, on which the DVD was recorded with more densely packed data about the Earth’s inhabitants and their achievements, including:

- the entire English version of Wikipedia,

- several tens of thousands of novels and reference books,

- information about 5 thousand languages,

- world artworks,

- technical and scientific reference books and other numerous materials.

The plates of the lunar library are stacked and placed in a special envelope (consisting of a multilayer insulating material), the plates are additionally protected with a kapton tape.

This “Archive of Human Knowledge” was made with the expectation that it would be stored on the Moon inside the Bereshit apparatus in space for tens of thousands of years without degradation.

But the unforeseen happened - the Bereshit device crashed during landing and, unfortunately, the archive was also damaged (or was destroyed, which is more likely).



That else was in the lunar library can be found in this pdf .

The first plate of the archive:





Plate sizes:



Plates are placed on each other and not yet compressed:



Plates prepared and packed in an envelope:



What you can see on analog plates:













Video of placing the container with the library inside the Bereshit apparatus (in fact, the engineers then additionally fixed an envelope with the library inside the apparatus):


Of course, the envelope-container with the plates had to be placed in the protected box on the Bereshit device itself, as it was necessary to designate the location of the lunar library (and place it on the upper part of the apparatus, and not under the tanks), so that on the Moon it was clear that here lies where exactly in the apparatus, but these moments were omitted in this project, apparently.



At the moment, in the organization of the Arch Mission Foundation there is a search for the lunar library after the accident of the Bereshit apparatus:



“The landing went a little more bumpy than expected, but the black boxes of the planes are experiencing much stronger collisions, and our disks are less fragile than they are. Small, lightweight items - like our 100g library - handle collisions better. Probably [due to the impact] they were thrown a few kilometers away - like a frisbee with 30 million pages flying across the moon. ”

The Arch Mission Foundation is not going to give up in the organization and they launched a new project - to determine the location of the "lunar library".

An open document was created in Google Docs with detailed information about the library library and its content, as well as details of the Bereshit wreck, which SpaceIL shared with them.

Thus, the Arch Mission Foundation organization is trying to solve the problem:
“If a spacecraft with objects weighing 100 grams crashes into the surface of the moon at a speed of 2,000 miles per hour (3,300 kilometers per hour), how far will these objects fly away from the accident site?”

The data obtained from the analysis of telemetry during the landing-fall apparatus "Bereshit":



According to preliminary calculations, the Bereshit unit flew 16-20 km further than the estimated landing site. And the place of his fall must be sought in a zone with a diameter of 140 km in the previously planned landing area of ​​the lunar surface in the Sea of ​​Clarity.

Red numbers - the height of the Bereshit apparatus over the surface of the Moon at two fixed points from which photographs of the lunar surface were sent.



Calculation of energy, which was released when the Bereshit device was dropped.

Latest data from SpaceIL MCC:



The total mass of the Bereshit apparatus when it strikes the lunar surface: 150 kg (the apparatus itself) +76 kg (remaining fuel) = 226 kg.

It turns out that the kinetic energy of the Bereshit apparatus at the moment of collision is 103 MJ, which is equivalent to an explosion of 25 kg of TNT (trinitrotoluene), since 1 kilogram of TNT = 4.184 MJ.

The calculation of the kinetic energy was carried out using this resource.




And what about the chemical energy that could stand out from the explosion of fuel?

The fuel of the Bereshit apparatus is hydrazine (monomethylhydrazine), the oxidizer is a mixture of nitrogen oxides (MON), there were 380 kg in the tanks at the start, 76 kg left before falling to the surface.

According to calculations and data from here , from 973 MJ to 1,483 MJ chemical energy could be released during the explosion of the fuel tanks, although this situation is unlikely and there, most likely, there was no such powerful explosion, as there was an oxidant in the ratio 1 to 1 and was faster thermal response when hitting the surface of the moon.

About the rapid thermal reaction - at a speed of more than 900 m / s the apparatus fell to the surface, and the tanks there were 50-70 cm in diameter, out of 380 kg of fuel 76 kg remained in them - 20% full. There was very little time for the collision process and a lot of damage to the elements immediately with the release of energy and the formation of a crater.

Moreover, there were 4 tanks (76/4 = 19 kg in one tank):







And they are protected above and below by such grounds:





How to assemble the unit "Bereshit":



All the same, the absence of the lunar atmosphere greatly affects such frames:



Calculation of the diameter of the crater formed from the fall of the apparatus "Bereshit".

Crater Education Handbook, page 6, figure 6 .



D (crater diameter in meters) = 0.55679 * (M ^ (1/3)), where M = TNT (in kg).

It turns out that the calculated crater diameter: 0.55679 * (25 ^ (1/3))) = 1.62 meters.



It is clear that this calculation does not take into account the fact that the Bereshit apparatus fell on the surface of the moon at an angle, as well as the difference in the characteristics of the earth and lunar soil.

However, now we understand the approximate order of data on the accident (energy and possible crater diameter) from the calculations and there is a small probability that during the fall of the Bereshit vehicle part of the lunar library remained intact and will be found in the future by space researchers on the Moon.

About the search unit "Bereshit" in NASA.

The crash site of the Bereshit unit in SpaceIL and NASA is known almost exactly from the telemetry data and analysis of the last seconds of the fall.

The last 4 seconds of the life of the device according to the data center (from 678 to 149 meters reduction):









At 19:23 UTC on April 11, 201, the telemetry data from the Bereshit device completely ceased to arrive at the SpaceIL MCC.

NASA plans to survey the area of ​​the Bereshit apparatus with the help of an LRO probe, in the hope that the elements of the array of laser corner reflectors have not collapsed and will be located on the lunar surface.

Reflectors were fixed on the upper part of the apparatus and, if it fell, could bounce, fly apart, roll over and dig in the lunar soil.

But even if only part of the reflector element is available to reflect a light pulse, this fact will be recorded by the equipment on the LRO probe.

The LRO laser altimeter (NASA lunar orbital probe), designed to compile an altitude map, will send laser light pulses to the corner reflector at the site of the Bereshit apparatus, and then measure how long the light takes to go back.

Using this technique, NASA and SpaceIL engineers plan to be able to locate the remains of the Bereshit vehicle.



It seems to me that the corner reflectors could still “survive” in such an accident, since they were placed on top of the Bereshit apparatus, but records with the library were formed (they were flattened in the fragments) in the construction of the apparatus when it fell, and now they are in the crater, which was formed from the fall of the apparatus "Bereshit" on the moon under the lunar soil.

It is assumed that the diameter of the formed crater after falling from 3 to 5 meters (5-10 meters when calculating with a kinetic energy of 108 MJ). The Bereshit device crashed into the surface of the Moon at a small angle (~ 8 °), the crater can be elongated.

On April 22-23, 2019, a LRO probe (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) will fly over the area of ​​the Bereshit apparatus's fall, so we are waiting for new photos from this NASA probe, which may help to detect the Bereshit apparatus's fall on the Moon.



Why is it so important to know the estimated size of the crater and the preliminary area of ​​the accident of the Bereshit vehicle?

The height of the Bereshit apparatus was about 1.5 meters, the diameter was 2 meters (2.3 meters between the landing supports). It is slightly larger in size than the Chinese Yuyu-2 rover, and this LRO probe could be fixed visually, albeit in several visits, by taking photographs of the surface at the landing site on the far side of the moon.

In case of successful landing of the Bereshit vehicle, the LRO probe would be able to photograph the landing site and we could see this fact.

Similar fixations of objects on the surface of the moon with an LRO probe.

Launched by NASA on June 18, 2009, the lunar orbital probe (LRO) continues to be used to obtain a large amount of valuable scientific information and on February 1, 2019, it managed to pass almost over the landing site of China’s Chang'e-4 station - “Statio Tianhe” on the far side of the moon.

The photo was taken by an LRO probe from a height of 82 kilometers, a resolution of 0.85 meters (33 inches) per 1 pixel, which made it possible to get a clearer picture of the location of the Chang'e-4 module and, finally, see the contours of the Yuyuta-2 rover in several pixels ".



To understand the size of the photo, the data on the modules "Chang'e-4":

- the Chang'e-4 descent module (4.4 meters between the opposite landing legs, weight 1200 kg.);



- Yuytu-2 rover (height 1 meter, width 1 meter (without solar batteries), 1.5 meters in length, two folding solar panels, six wheels, weight 140 kg.).



At the time of the new LRO probe, the Yuuta-2 rover was located 29 meters north-west of the Chang'e-4 landing gear.

Comparative photographs taken by the LRO (NASA Lunar Orbital Probe) landing site of the Chang'e-4 mission on the far side of the Moon at different times (see the photo of the descent module and the rover moving farther from the landing site):





Thus, in the case of the Bereshit apparatus falling onto the lunar surface, the LRO probe should record the appearance of a new crater in the area of ​​the alleged accident, and this will be done by comparing the photographs of the surface before and after the accident, as well as these photographs should be taken at different times the time for the angle of incidence of sunlight on the surface of the moon was different.



If the actual size of the crater after the fall of the Bereshit apparatus is from 3 to 10 meters, this fact should be confirmed in the new photos from the LRO probe, which we expect in a short time.

There are a lot of small craters in the zone of supposed fall.