SMART-1 Arrives At The Moon

[zavvy]

<b>SMART-1 Arrives At The Moon</b><br /><br />LINK<br /><br />It's been a long trip, but Europe's first Moon mission is finally nearing its goal. SMART-1, launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) way back on 27 September 2003, will go into orbit around the Moon on 15 November. <br /><br />In January, the craft will begin the first comprehensive X-ray survey of the Moon's surface, giving scientists clues about its composition and age. This geological map will help scientists to establish exactly how the Moon formed.<br /><br />The size of a domestic washing machine, SMART-1 uses an innovative propulsion system that wafts the craft along on a breath of gas. It carries solar panels that convert the Sun's light into electricity, which is used to strip electrons away from atoms of xenon. This generates charged ions that are accelerated through a magnetic field and ejected from the rear of the spacecraft, producing a gentle thrust equivalent to the weight of two pennies resting on the palm of your hand. <br /><br />"This is the first time ever that a probe has used ion propulsion to escape from the Earth," says Bernard Foing, who heads the SMART-1 team at ESA's Space Science Department in Noordwijk, The Netherlands.<br />Conventional spacecraft engines rely on chemical reactions to generate gas, which pushes the craft forwards as it squeezes out of the engine, in the same way as a deflating party balloon will fly across a room. But in space, mass is money. Whereas chemical engines must carry two fuel substances to react together (often hydrogen and oxygen), SMART-1's ion drive carries only xenon, making it lighter and cheaper.<br /><br />The success of SMART-1, which stands for Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology, in reaching the Moon has proved that future spacecraft could use the same engines to get to Mercury and Mars, says Foing.<br /><br />Moon map<br /><br />SMART-1 still has ple

 

[no_way]

Didnt want to start another thread, but, in somewhat related news:<br />http://www.orbitalrecovery.com/news13.html<br /><b>Orbital Recovery Completes the Funding for its CX OLEV Space Tug With a Team of European Space Industry Leaders </b><br /><br />London, England, November 11, 2004 - Orbital Recovery Ltd. has completed its second round financing for the ConeXpress Orbital Life Extension Vehicle (CX OLEV™), marking a major program milestone that allows production of the first "space tug" to begin in early 2005, followed by the initial operational mission approximately 36 months later. <br /> <br />....

 

[serak_the_preparer]

Very cool!<br /><br />Thanks for the updates - both of you.<br /><br />Slowly but surely, we are getting there, step by painful step. It's just not happening as fast as the atmosphere of the Apollo Era led us to hope. But it is happening, nevertheless.<br /><br />Go, SpaceShipOne!

 

[qzzq]

<ul type="square">ESA Portal: Europe reaches the Moon<br /><br />16 November 2004<br /><br />ESA PR 60-2004. ESA’s SMART-1 is successfully making its first orbit of the Moon, a significant milestone for the first of Europe's Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology (SMART) spacecraft.<br /> <br />A complex package of tests on new technologies was successfully performed during the cruise to the Moon, while the spacecraft was getting ready for the scientific investigations which will come next. These technologies pave the way for future planetary missions.</ul>More at the link. <img src="/images/icons/cool.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p>***</p> </div>

 

[CalliArcale]

Woohoo! SMART-1 is largely a technology demonstrator, and as such, it is excelling beyond measure! Ion technology is, I believe, very much in the immediate future of unmanned spacecraft. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[qzzq]

Agreed. This craft has already travelled 80 million kilometers, spiralling away from Earth to the Moon, a true 'inter-planetary' distance. Hopefully ESA will be able to put satellites in orbit around the Sun and Mercury using this technology in the near future. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p>***</p> </div>

 

[grooble]

It used less fuel than expected too. 131 out 180lbs.<br /><br />5 million miles to the gallon they say <img src="/images/icons/tongue.gif" />

 

[arobie]

5 million <b>kilometers</b> to the gallon you mean. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /><br />It would be 3,106,856 miles to the gallon. That's still a whole ton (not literally) more than my broken car would get.

 

[grooble]

Do you think NASA will use data from SMART-1 in choosing landing zones for the new Moon landings? Or are they going to waste a ton of money on their own probe that learns nothing new <img src="/images/icons/tongue.gif" />

 

[qzzq]

From SpaceDaily.com:<ul type="square">SMART-1 Completes Its First Orbit Around The Moon<br /><br />Paris (ESA) Nov 22, 2004<br /><br />Last Friday (November 19) at 10:58 UTC, SMART-1 passed its second perilune and successfully completed its first orbit around the Moon. The first orbit started on 15 November at 17:47 UTC when SMART-1 passed its first perilune.<br />The next perilunae will occur with increasingly shorter intervals as the orbital period of the spacecraft continuously decreases. This is due to the thrust provided by the electric propulsion system, which is used to reduce the semi-major axis of the orbit.<br /><br />The first firing of the electric propulsion engine started on 15 November at 05:23 UTC and the engine has performed flawlessly since. It will remain on until 17:48 UTC today, providing a total thrust time of 108 hours.<br /><br />Eclipse period<br /><br />Another important event in the near future is a fairly long eclipse caused by the satellite crossing the Moon's umbra for 1 hour and 50 minutes on 22 November starting at 08:52 UTC. The spacecraft has proved, during the transfer orbit, to be able to withstand even longer eclipses. However, since the batteries have not been discharged for that long since many months, the ESOC flight control team and the ESTEC and industry specialists will closely follow the event.<br /><br />The final orbital elements are said by ESA to be extremely close to the calculated elements of the planned orbit. This accurate prediction is evidence of both the good performance of the electric propulsion engine (about 1% above nominal) and the accuracy of the trajectory calculation by the flight dynamics team.</ul><img src="/images/icons/cool.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p>***</p> </div>

 

[JonClarke]

I am sure thatall data would be reviewed by any team slecting landing sites. But there are so many interesting instruments (radar, laser altimeter, high resolution mapper, imager intensifying camera for the permanantly darkened areas, for example) that can be flown that I suspect that NASA will fly anothe orbiter before committing to a lander.<br /><br />Jon <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><em>Whether we become a multi-planet species with unlimited horizons, or are forever confined to Earth will be decided in the twenty-first century amid the vast plains, rugged canyons and lofty mountains of Mars</em>  Arthur Clarke</p> </div>

 

[EarthlingX]

sci.esa.int : ESA shares SMART-1 legacy with the world

21 Sep 2010

The complete archive of data sets from ESA's 3-year SMART-1 mission to the Moon has been released to the scientific community. Contained within the archive are 3D maps of the lunar poles along with detailed spectroscopic measurements of the lunar surface. Researchers can utilise this information, and cross-reference it with the wider Planetary Science Archive, to further investigate the formation and evolution of our nearest neighbour in space.

Access the SMART-1 science archive at the ESA Planetary Science Archive

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