When Israel’s Bereshet lunar lander landed on the moon in April 2019, Israel’s fledgling space technology industry did not disappoint.
After all, tiny Israel is one of only four countries to land a spacecraft this far — and plans are underway to launch Beresheet 2 on the ground and into orbit by 2024.
Israel’s optimism is not unique to space-technology, which is seen as a threat to job losses in more vulnerable countries, but 2023 is a big reason why Israeli innovation has truly reached stratospheric heights.
This will be helped in part by the Israeli government pledging to invest 600 million shekels (about $180 million) in the civil space industry over the next five years to help it compete in the global space economy, which startup Nation Central estimates is worth $400 billion. .
The funding, promoted by the Israel Space Agency, has sky-high goals:
- To quadruple the number of people employed by space technology companies from 2,500 to 10,000.
- To increase total spending on space-technology projects from $1 billion to $1.25 billion.
- To increase the number of academic researchers from 120 to 160 in space-related subjects.
- To increase from 200 to 4,000 high school students interested in working in space-related fields.
Space-tech incubators
Of course, the government cannot do all this by itself. Thus, in recent years, private investors and incubators designed to advance space technology have sprung up.
One of them, Earth & Beyond, has won a government bid to establish Israel’s first incubator focused on space-technology startups in partnership with Spacecom, an Israeli satellite telecom company.
“We want to be part of the new space revolution,” says Incubator Director Ofer Asif, who is senior vp at Specom.
“Our vision is that by 2030 there will be hundreds of ‘newspace’ startups employing 20,000 people. Groups like ours continue to invest billions in these ventures.
Starburst Aerospace Astra is another space technology incubator operating in Israel as well as in Los Angeles, Paris and Singapore.
It runs a 13-week boot camp and a one-year accelerated program in Israel. Israel Managing Director Noemi Aliel explained that among the categories in which Starburst invests are regional mobility (including launch and supersonic and hybrid flights). orbital infrastructure; and enabling technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and cyber security.
A brief history of Israeli space technology
Israel’s space-technology industry was put on the map in 1988 by Ofek 1, the country’s first communications satellite. (OFEC 16 launched in 2020.)
That is no easy feat.
Only a few other countries that can launch satellites are USA, Russia, Japan, France, UK, Ukraine, India, China, North Korea, South Korea and New Zealand.
In addition, Israel is “the only country to launch satellites in another direction,” Hila Hadad Khmelnyk, director general of the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology, told ISRAEL21c.
“Around the world, satellites bring from west to east. But because of our neighbors, we can’t launch to the east, so we start another way, which loses energy. When energy goes down, you have to make the satellites smaller.”
The Start-Up Nation Central Advisory Group counts 50 companies and academic institutions active in Israel’s space technology industry. Their common denominator: doing more with less.
“Necessity is the mother of invention,” Aliel tells ISRAEL21c. “We don’t have much money. We spend a tenth of the cheapest landowners’ costs for Beresheet in other countries. We were able to develop the same technology at a fraction of the cost.
Israel has been punching above its population weight when trying to get involved in space.
Two Israeli astronauts have gone into orbit: Ilan Ramon, who died in the 2013 Columbia space shuttle explosion; and Ethan Stiebe, a former Israeli Air Force pilot and businessman who has paid to be a “space tourist” on the International Space Station in 2022.
Click here for a timeline of Israel’s space steps.
“Space is no longer the exclusive domain of superpowers or corporations, or a place of science and research,” added Yuri Oron, director general of the Israel Space Agency. “Space is now open for business.”
down to earth
Space-technology today is not limited to pie-in-the-sky, Elon Musk- or Jeff Bezos-inspired fantasies of space exploration.
“This technology can be used to produce steel on Earth in a greener and cheaper way than the current process,” Starburst’s Aliel told ISRAEL21c. “These are the companies we want to support.” “We don’t have to wait for a colony on Mars to see a return on investment,” he said.
“We want to create a sustainable space economy for life on Earth and beyond,” said Ainat Berkovich, founder of TYPE5, an Israeli venture capital firm that specializes in investments in space. She spoke at the Israel Space Tech Summit in Tel Aviv earlier this year.
Other areas of space-technology where Israel is moving forward include space robotics, pharmaceutical development in zero gravity and the development of quantum computing platforms in space.
The SpaceIL Beresheet 2 spacecraft will carry a miniature greenhouse with seeds and plants that can be grown on the lunar surface. So far, the only crop grown there is a single Chinese cotton seed grown in 2019.
“Colonies on the moon or Mars may become a reality, and we’re figuring out how to grow plants there,” said Professor Simon Barak of the Jacob Blaustein Desert Research Institute at Ben Gurion University of the Negev. Beersheva, which is developing a greenhouse in collaboration with universities in Australia and South Africa.
Downstream applications of space-technology can make a real difference on Earth.
Observing satellites, for example, could help researchers “understand where the pollution is in the ocean,” Hadad Khmelnyk said. Or, using images from space, we can analyze where lithium is located around the world. (Lithium is a key component in most electric car and cell phone batteries. It is becoming increasingly rare and expensive.)
Climate change is also on Hadad Khmelnyk’s agenda.
“You can’t find all the solutions here on earth,” she says. “Because of this, space becomes very interesting. We can see what is happening on Earth from the outside. We can measure the temperature of the water, for example.
And spying on what rogue states like Iran and North Korea are trying to hide with their military programs is best done from space.
Financial services conglomerate Citigroup estimates that $100 billion will be invested in such downstream applications by 2040.
How to inspire Beresheet
While the Bereshet lander and subsequent crash may not have sparked Israel’s interest in space technology, it may have been the country’s highest profile.
Beresheet began in response to Google’s Lunar XPrize, which promises a grand prize of $20 million for the first team to land on the moon and transmit high-quality images and videos.
The XPrize deadline expired in 2018 before any team could start, so the prize was not awarded. Bereshet, which built Bereshet with Israel Aerospace Industries and the Israel Space Agency, won a $1 million moonshot prize from the XPrize Foundation to touch the moon — albeit in pieces!
But SpaceIL’s founders weren’t just in it for the money.
In the year Founded in 2011 by Yariv Bash, Kfir Damari, and Yehonathan Weintraub, SpaceIL has always been “motivated by action” and its goal was to inspire young Israelis to pursue careers in space.
Along those lines, the Israel Space Agency and MOST launched the TEVEL program four years ago, which gave Jewish and Arab high school students the opportunity to build, test and launch nanosatellites into space and then collect data and conduct experiments.
Getting more women into the male-dominated field of space technology is another goal for SpaceIL and organizations like WiSpace (Women in Space).
Controlling the space
Because of the ever-increasing “space junk” problem, commercialization may be difficult to achieve above Earth’s atmosphere. This is another area where Israel plays an important role.
Satellites, when they reach their end of life, remain in space. As a result, it is becoming difficult to find safe ways to escape from danger.
Therefore, space traffic control is a matter of great concern.
“There are five outer space treaties, UN resolutions and directives, including the UN Office of Foreign Affairs and the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space,” explains Neta Palkovitz, founder of the space law, regulatory and policy consulting group NewSpace Firm.
However, existing agreements, such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX or Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, are “only between countries in space, not commercial enterprises,” Palkovitz said.
Governments can take their space disputes to the International Court of Justice, but commercial institutions don’t have to stop there, Palkovits said. “So now, if there’s a dispute about space activities, there’s no specific place to resolve things without involving regions.”
Abu Dhabi Space Debate
In the year On December 5, Israeli President Isaac Herzog delivered an opening speech at the United Arab Emirates Space Debate in Abu Dhabi.
The conference brought together national and industry leaders to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the global space economy.
Herzog said he believes “the greatest hope of space exploration lies not only in discoveries on distant planets, but in rediscovering our ability to cooperate, here on the blue planet we call home.”
Herzog pointed out that Israel has close cooperation with NASA, the European Space Agency and its partners in France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Brazil and other countries. He said the space partnership with the United Arab Emirates is boldly leading our region to a new frontier in space and leaving its historical mark.
One example they cite is the Venus satellite, a joint Israeli-French project that now provides data for joint research by Israel and the Emirates.
“The Venus satellite is closely monitoring the Earth’s vegetation on forests, croplands and nature reserves and is beaming multi-specialized images. In a first of their joint work, the Israeli and Emirati space agencies are funding the joint analysis of this data by Israeli and Emirati scientists, which will help us better understand our global environment and collaborate on new solutions to protect our planet’s green lungs.”
to infinity and beyond?
So, will 2023 be the year that space technology takes off in Israel?
“This is one of my main goals,” said Israel Space Agency Chairman Dan Bloomberg. Perhaps Israel will one day even be invited to join the European Space Agency.
“We definitely have the potential to be a leader, but a lot of things have to fall into place,” says Aliel.
Hila Hadad Kmelnik is feeling more positive.
“You have to be really optimistic to talk to space,” she explains. “So, yes, the next year or two will be important for Israeli space technology. I hope 2023 will be the year! “
Check out our moon times here.
