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David Copperfield's magic trick secrets on the moon after Israel's failed Beresheet space launch

SpaceIL believes the secrets are still intact

Lily Puckett
New York
Wednesday 17 April 2019 23:00 BST
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David Copperfield attends the 14th Annual CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Awards.
David Copperfield attends the 14th Annual CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Awards. (Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images for Ride of Fame)

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An attempt by Israel’s non-profit SpaceIL to land a spacecraft on the moon failed last week, but the lunar lander, named Beresheet, left something on the moon anyway.

TechCrunch reports that among the data in Beresheet’s tiny, high-capacity archival devices was a DVD’s worth of “secret technological innovations” created by magician David Copperfield.

Those tricks, which hadn’t been released on Earth, are now lost to space.

A press release revealing the unexpected space cargo explained the Copperfield worked with the Arch Mission Foundation and the Lunar Library to deliver the “first commercial payload” to the moon.

“Magic is the link between science and art - infinite possibilities - shared through new technology and grand storytelling,” Copperfield said in a statement regarding an actual spacecraft shot into a space, which contained the way he does magic tricks.

“I create magic to inspire people to dream the impossible, and to look at the world and the future in a different way.”

Although the Beresheet did crash, the SpaceIL team is confident that the lost Lunar Library, and Copperfield’s illusion instructions, remain unharmed.

“We think it is highly unlikely that the Lunar Library was atomized in the impact,” writes the team.

“Without knowing the impact energy directed at the library, it’s hard to know how the stack fared. But taking the construction of the Lunar Library into account, we believe it has a high chance of being intact.”

The Lunar Library joins a long list of items dropped by humans on the moon, including a message from the queen, who did not reveal any secrets to space.

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