The Israel Space Agency will invite scholars to propose studies and projects in preparation for cooperation with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

The Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) have agreed on a scientific collaboration, in which Israeli scientists will be able to suggest research proposals and projects that will be integrated into the JPL work program. The Israel Space Agency will soon publish an invitation for scholars to submit their proposals. The selected proposals will be discussed at a special meeting in October at JPL.
 
The initiative was agreed upon this month following a visit by the Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Ofir Akunis, to JPL, in a meeting with representatives of the Institute, including Larry James, Deputy Director of the Institute, who also visited Israel for the 15th Ilan Ramon International Space Conference.
 
JPL is a federally funded NASA research and development institute with an annual budget of about $2.4 billion and is managed by the California Institute of Technology. The institute's main functions are to build and operate unmanned missions in planetary exploration, although it also conducts astronomy missions and missions in orbit around the Earth. Among other things, JPL is responsible for the construction and operation of NASA's lunar navigation system, the Deep Space Network, which enables the navigation, dispatch and return of data from all spacecraft moving around the Moon. As part of an agreement expected to be signed by the end of 2023, the Beresheet 2 mission, Israel's second spacecraft to the moon, is supposed to receive access to this navigation system from NASA.