Europe goes to the Moon

Europe’s first mission to the Moon is about to start. The
unmanned, solar energy driven SMART-1 spacecraft has entered
the orbit around the Moon. It will collect a range of
data, some of which will be used to study the Moon’s
origins.
 

Europe’s first lunar spacecraft, SMART-1, was launched by the
European Space Agency (ESA) from Kourou
(French Guiana) on 27 September 2003. Thanks to its efficient
engine using an exploratory technique, the
spacecraft entered the orbit around the Moon on 15 November
2004, two months earlier than expected. The spacecraft
will orbit the Moon for two years.

SMART-1 is the first of ESA’s ‘Small Missions for Advanced
Research in Technology’ (SMART), which
are low-budget missions testing new technologies for
bigger projects. The main purpose of SMART-1 is to test a new way
to travel in space. It is ten times more efficient than the
usual systems used so far. This new way, solar-electric propulsion,
does not burn fuel as chemical rockets do. It converts
sunlight into electricity via solar panels. If this method proves
to be successful, it may push ESA missions further away into deep
space, because more energy-efficient spacecrafts can make
longer journeys. 

SMART-1 is carrying a set of miniaturised instruments which it
will, once in the Moon, use
to study the chemical composition of the lunar
surface. It will also look, for the first time, at the darker
side of the Moon’s south pole and help scientists find
out whether ice is present on the Moon’s surface. If
ice was found on the Moon it would, as a vital resource, help in
the setting up of a manned lunar base.

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