7 ms·

Amazing that a private entity in a tiny country can scrape up the resources to go to the freaking moon on mission of inspiration. Can't wait to see them land i

Amazing that a private entity in a tiny country can scrape up the resources to go to the freaking moon on mission of inspiration. Can't wait to see them land it.

Scarbutt 8y ago
Research their relations with the US.
- rustcharm 8y ago
  What does this mean? Israel also has very good relations with India and China.
Retric 8y ago
This is a very cool project. But, it's not fully funded by Israel and uses a US rocket etc. IMO, the bigger deal is it's a privately funded moon mission. PS: Israel has a GDP of 350.9 billion USD, US had a GDP of 542 billion in 1960 which works out to: $4,622 billion or around 13x Israel which just shows how much richer the world has become.
- mnx 8y ago
  Are you adjusting for inflation?
  - dogma1138 8y ago
    Considering the latter half of his sentence he clearly did, Israel might be small but it has a GDP greater that of the smaller developed EU countries like Denmark or Ireland, in fact it's not that far off from the likes of Norway and while Israel has been developing some LPG fields they don't have nearly as much petroleum export as Norway. Israel might be small but it has the money and more importantly the knowhow to run a proper space program and develop a real launcher rather than the 3/4 stage "we promise it's not an ICBM" they use to launch their military satellites, if their situation would've been different and they could cut down on defence spending they likely could've been on the same level as India, keep in mind that India only spends about $1bln. a year on theirs, Israel spends nearly $20bln on defence.
    - davidf18 8y ago
      For its size, Israel has a huge hitech infrastructure. David ben Gurion, the father of Israel, while himself a lawyer was a huge believer in the importance of technology. Intel employs 11,000 in Israel including a 22 nm fab being upgraded to 10 nm. Intel has two design centers in Israel. Apple has a major engineering presence there with much of the chip design done in Israel (the Face ID tech is from an Apple purchased startup in Israel called PrimeSense). The VP of computer chip design is an Israeli Arab trained as an engineering in Israel.
    - joelbluminator 8y ago
      Per capita Ireland, Norway and Denmark all have a signifcantly higher GDP than Israel. Ireland's is through the roof nowadays but that might be due to it being a tax haven. GDP has been gaining a lot of controversy lately but we're going off topi.
      - dogma1138 8y ago
        Per capita GDP doesn’t mean much for national programs, India has a very low per capita GDP compared to the west so does China. Per capita Israel still has higher GDP than Portugal or Poland not to mention Russia. With a GDP of $350 billion an an advanced aerospace industry they can easily have a bigger space program than they do now its only a question of if they need it and would want to pay for it. Israel has a basic space launch vehicle and has experience in developing and manufacturing satellites and launching them if they could or wanted to spend a few billion dollars a year they could easily be on the same footing as India today if not further.
        joelbluminator 8y ago
        So maybe GDP is somewhat irrelevant to this discussion, Russia is a good example - they don't have that high a GDP but they are very advanced in missile and space programs. While GDP may have a weak correlation, it's more about the quality of science, engineering etc.
        8y ago
salimmadjd 8y ago
The mission, which now has a reported price tag of $95 million, is bankrolled by billionaire investors that include Israeli entrepreneur Morris Kahn, and U.S. business magnate Sheldon Adelson. In other words, one of it’s biggest funder is the same guys that funded Trump’s campaign [0]. I’m glad he is also using his casino money on some good work. [0] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/08/sheldon-adelson-trump-middle-east-policy https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/08/sheldon-adel...
- frahs 8y ago
  Ah, too bad this mission to the moon isn't political, otherwise you might have found a connection!
- rustcharm 8y ago
  @dang can you remove this off-topic comment?
kamaal 8y ago
If you invest well in education, create quality human resources, and then give them resources they can do anything. In fact its mostly small countries who do big things. Greece under Alexander the great. And more recently England. It was like a small Island and pretty much ruled the whole world.
- SpanishConf 8y ago
  Also lots and lots and lots of subsidies by the US
- golergka 8y ago
  Or better yet, live in persecution that makes it harder to succeed with manual agricultural labour but easier through crafts and trade, build your culture and religion about literacy and education, and remain a tight ethno-religious group with social pressure (both from within and outside) to inter-marry.

Amazing that a private entity in a tiny country can scrape up the resources to go to the freaking moon on mission of inspiration. Can't wait to see them land it.

Scarbutt 8y ago

Research their relations with the US.

rustcharm 8y ago
What does this mean? Israel also has very good relations with India and China.

Retric 8y ago

This is a very cool project. But, it's not fully funded by Israel and uses a US rocket etc. IMO, the bigger deal is it's a privately funded moon mission. PS: Israel has a GDP of 350.9 billion USD, US had a GDP of 542 billion in 1960 which works out to: $4,622 billion or around 13x Israel which just shows how much richer the world has become.

mnx 8y ago
Are you adjusting for inflation?
- dogma1138 8y ago
  Considering the latter half of his sentence he clearly did, Israel might be small but it has a GDP greater that of the smaller developed EU countries like Denmark or Ireland, in fact it's not that far off from the likes of Norway and while Israel has been developing some LPG fields they don't have nearly as much petroleum export as Norway. Israel might be small but it has the money and more importantly the knowhow to run a proper space program and develop a real launcher rather than the 3/4 stage "we promise it's not an ICBM" they use to launch their military satellites, if their situation would've been different and they could cut down on defence spending they likely could've been on the same level as India, keep in mind that India only spends about $1bln. a year on theirs, Israel spends nearly $20bln on defence.
  - davidf18 8y ago
    For its size, Israel has a huge hitech infrastructure. David ben Gurion, the father of Israel, while himself a lawyer was a huge believer in the importance of technology. Intel employs 11,000 in Israel including a 22 nm fab being upgraded to 10 nm. Intel has two design centers in Israel. Apple has a major engineering presence there with much of the chip design done in Israel (the Face ID tech is from an Apple purchased startup in Israel called PrimeSense). The VP of computer chip design is an Israeli Arab trained as an engineering in Israel.
  - joelbluminator 8y ago
    Per capita Ireland, Norway and Denmark all have a signifcantly higher GDP than Israel. Ireland's is through the roof nowadays but that might be due to it being a tax haven. GDP has been gaining a lot of controversy lately but we're going off topi.
    - dogma1138 8y ago
      Per capita GDP doesn’t mean much for national programs, India has a very low per capita GDP compared to the west so does China. Per capita Israel still has higher GDP than Portugal or Poland not to mention Russia. With a GDP of $350 billion an an advanced aerospace industry they can easily have a bigger space program than they do now its only a question of if they need it and would want to pay for it. Israel has a basic space launch vehicle and has experience in developing and manufacturing satellites and launching them if they could or wanted to spend a few billion dollars a year they could easily be on the same footing as India today if not further.
      - joelbluminator 8y ago
        So maybe GDP is somewhat irrelevant to this discussion, Russia is a good example - they don't have that high a GDP but they are very advanced in missile and space programs. While GDP may have a weak correlation, it's more about the quality of science, engineering etc.
        8y ago

salimmadjd 8y ago

The mission, which now has a reported price tag of $95 million, is bankrolled by billionaire investors that include Israeli entrepreneur Morris Kahn, and U.S. business magnate Sheldon Adelson. In other words, one of it’s biggest funder is the same guys that funded Trump’s campaign [0]. I’m glad he is also using his casino money on some good work. [0] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/08/sheldon-adelson-trump-middle-east-policy https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/08/sheldon-adel...

frahs 8y ago
Ah, too bad this mission to the moon isn't political, otherwise you might have found a connection!
rustcharm 8y ago
@dang can you remove this off-topic comment?

kamaal 8y ago

If you invest well in education, create quality human resources, and then give them resources they can do anything. In fact its mostly small countries who do big things. Greece under Alexander the great. And more recently England. It was like a small Island and pretty much ruled the whole world.

SpanishConf 8y ago
Also lots and lots and lots of subsidies by the US
golergka 8y ago
Or better yet, live in persecution that makes it harder to succeed with manual agricultural labour but easier through crafts and trade, build your culture and religion about literacy and education, and remain a tight ethno-religious group with social pressure (both from within and outside) to inter-marry.