SpaceIL books trip to the Moon + Video: Seminar on lunar elevators

The SpaceIL team in the Google Lunar X PRIZE is a volunteer, not-for-profit Israel-based organization that just became the first participant in the GLXP to get a verified booking on a rocket: Israeli Google Lunar XPRIZE Team Is First to Sign Launch Agreement For Private Mission to the Moon On SpaceX Falcon 9 – Google Lunar XPRIZE.

The team’s lunar explorer will get into space via a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in the second half of 2017.

Check out their latest newsletter: We Have Been Waiting for this Moment for Five Years!

This video describes how they came up with the new design for the lander, which will use its propulsion system to hop to other spots on the surface:

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Someday spacecraft and cargo may go from an in-space transport node down to and back up from the Moon’s surface via a lunar space elevator. Here is a talk about how such an elevator could be built: Lunar Elevator – Seminar at NASA Ames.

For more details, see Lunar Elevator – LiftPort Group.