Impact landing ends SMART-1 mission to the Moon (Forwarded)

European Space Agency
Press Release No. 31-2006
Paris, France 3 September 2006

Impact landing ends SMART-1 mission to the Moon

Early this morning, a small flash illuminated the surface of the Moon as
the European Space Agency's SMART-1 spacecraft impacted onto the lunar
soil, in the 'Lake of Excellence' region. The planned impact concluded a
successful mission that, in addition to testing innovative space
technology, had been conducting a thorough scientific exploration of the
Moon for about a year and a half.

SMART-1 scientists, engineers and space operations experts witnessed the
final moments of the spacecraft's life in the night between Saturday 2 and
Sunday 3 September at ESA's European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), in
Darmstadt, Germany. The confirmation of the impact reached ESOC at
07:42:22 CEST (05:42:22 UT), when ESA's New Norcia ground station in
Australia suddenly lost radio contact with the spacecraft. SMART-1 ended
its journey in the Lake of Excellence, in the point situated at 34.4 deg
South latitude and 46.2 deg West longitude.

The SMART-1 impact took place on the near side of the Moon, in a dark area
just near the terminator (the line separating the day side from the night
side), at a "grazing" angle between 5 and 10 degrees and a speed of about
2 kilometres per second. The impact time and location was planned to
favour observations of the impact event from telescopes on Earth, and it
was achieved by a series of orbit manoeuvres and corrections performed
during the course of summer 2006, the last of which was done on 1
September.

Professional and amateur ground observers all around the world -- from
South Africa to the Canary Islands, South America, the continental United
States, Hawaii, and many other locations -- were watching before and
during the small SMART-1 impact, hoping to spot the faint impact flash and
to obtain information about the impact dynamics and about the lunar
surface excavated by the spacecraft. The quality of the data and images
gathered from the ground observatories -- a tribute to the end of the
SMART-1 mission and a possible additional contribution to lunar science --
will be assessed in the days to come.

For the last 16 months and until its final orbits, SMART-1 has been
studying the Moon, gathering data about the morphology and mineralogical
composition of the surface in visible, infrared and X-ray light.

"The legacy left by the huge wealth of SMART-1 data, to be analysed in the
months and years to come, is a precious contribution to lunar science at a
time when the exploration of the Moon is once again getting the world's
interest," said Bernard Foing, ESA SMART-1 Project Scientist. "The
measurements by SMART-1 call into question the theories concerning the
Moon's violent origin and evolution," he added. The Moon may have formed
from the impact of a Mars-size asteroid with the Earth 4500 million years
ago. "SMART-1 has mapped large and small impact craters, studied the
volcanic and tectonic processes that shaped the Moon, unveiled the
mysterious poles, and investigated sites for future exploration," Foing
concluded.

"ESA's decision to extend the SMART-1 scientific mission by a further year
(it was initially planned to last only six months around the Moon) allowed
the instrument scientists to extensively use a number of innovative
observing modes at the Moon," added Gerhard Schwehm, ESA's SMART-1 Mission
Manager. In addition to plain nadir observations (looking down on the
'vertical' line for lunar surveys), they included targeted observations,
moon-spot pointing and 'push-broom' observations (a technique SMART-1 used
to obtain colour images). "This was tough work for the mission planners,
but the lunar data archive we are now building is truly impressive."

"SMART-1 has been an enormous success also from a technological point of
view," said Giuseppe Racca, ESA SMART-1 Project Manager. The major goal of
the mission was to test an ion engine (solar electric propulsion) in space
for the first time for interplanetary travel, and capture a spacecraft
into orbit around another celestial body, in combination with gravity
assist manoeuvres.

SMART-1 also tested future deep-space communication techniques for
spacecraft, techniques to achieve autonomous spacecraft navigation, and
miniaturised scientific instruments, used for the first time around the
Moon. "It is a great satisfaction to see how well the mission achieved its
technological objectives, and did great lunar science at the same time,"
Racca concluded.

"Operating SMART-1 has been an extremely complex but rewarding task," said
Octavio Camino-Ramos, ESA SMART-1 Spacecraft Operations Manager. "The long
spiralling trajectory around Earth to test solar electric propulsion (a
low-thrust approach), the long exposure to radiation, the strong
perturbations of the gravity fields of the Earth-Moon system and then the
reaching of a lunar orbit optimised for the scientific investigations,
have allowed us to gain valuable expertise in navigation techniques for
low-thrust propulsion and innovative operations concepts: telemetry
distribution and alerting through the internet, and a high degree of
ground operations automation -- a remarkable benchmark for the future," he
explained.

"For ESA's Science Programme, SMART-1 represents a great success and a
very good return on investment, both from the technological and the
scientific point of view," said Professor Southwood, ESA's Director of
Science. "It seems that right now everyone in the world is planning on
going to the Moon. Future scientific missions will greatly benefit from
the technological and operational experience gained thanks to this small
spacecraft, while the set of scientific data gathered by SMART-1 is
already helping to update our current picture of the Moon."

Note to editors:

SMART-1, (Small Mission for Advanced Research and Technology) is the first
European mission to the Moon. It was launched on 27 September 2003 on
board an Ariane 5 rocket, from the CSG, Europe's Spaceport in Kourou,
French Guiana and reached its destination in November 2004 after following
a long spiralling trajectory around Earth.

In this phase, the spacecraft successfully tested for the first time in
space the series of advanced technologies it carried on board. The
technology demonstration part of the mission was declared successfully
concluded when SMART-1 reached the Moon and was captured by the lunar
gravity field in mid-November 2004.

SMART-1 started its scientific observations of the Moon in March 2005,
running on an elliptical polar orbit that ranged from about 500 to 3000
kilometres over the lunar surface. The instruments on board included a
miniaturised imaging camera (AMIE), an X-ray telescope (D-CIXS) to
identify the key chemical elements in the lunar surface, an infrared
spectrometer (SIR) to chart the Moon's minerals and an X-ray solar monitor
(XSM) to complement the D-CIXS measurements and study the solar
variability.

SMART-1 was a small unmanned satellite weighing 366 kilograms and roughly
fitting into a cube just 1 metre across, excluding its 14-metre solar
panels. It was manufactured by the Swedish Space Corporation, Solna
(Sweden), leading a consortium of more than 20 European industrial teams.

For more information:

Bernard Foing, ESA SMART-1 Project Scientist
Email: bernard.foing @ esa.int

Gerhard Schwehm, ESA SMART-1 Mission Manager
Email: gerhard.schwehm @ esa.int

Octavio Camino-Ramos, ESA SMART-1 Spacecraft Operations Manager
Email: octavio.camino @ esa.int

Giuseppe Racca, ESA SMART-1 Project Manager
Email: giuseppe.racca @ esa.int

[NOTE: Images supporting this release are available at
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM7A76LARE_index_1.html ]

More about ...

* Looking at the Moon
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/SMART-1/index.html
* Ion engine gets SMART-1 to the Moon
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/SMART-1/SEMLZ36LARE_0.html
* Close-up on Cuvier crater ridge
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMOB7BUQPE_index_0.html
* Eroded structures in Jacobi crater: a window on the past
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM8A7BUQPE_FeatureWeek_0.html
* An oblique look on the north lunar far west
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEM787BUQPE_index_0.html
* SMART-1 view of crater Pentland's area
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMW67BUQPE_index_0.html
* Lava dome in Schiller
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEML57BUQPE_index_0.html
* Mare Serenitatis: crater statistics and lunar chronology
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEM847BUQPE_index_0.html
* Mersenius crater -- wrinkles between Humorum and Procellarum
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMTV6BUQPE_index_0.html
* Lomonosov -- a large crater filled by lava
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEM1R6BUQPE_index_0.html
* SMART-1 birthday postcard of Apollo 11 landing site
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEM1O6BUQPE_index_0.html
* Gruithuisen: non-mare volcanism in Procellarum
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEM871BUQPE_index_0.html
* Landscapes from the ancient and eroded lunar far side
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMDWNWALPE_index_0.html
* SMART-1 view of crater Sulpicius Gallus
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMGV5XAIPE_index_0.html
* The SMART-1 way -- giving the Moon some great new looks
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMGA4XAIPE_index_0.html
* Mare Humorum: where craters tell the story of basalt
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMVMAA6CPE_index_0.html
* Gassendi crater -- clue on the thermal history of Mare Humorum
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMV7DIO9PE_index_0.html
* Kepler Crater as seen by SMART-1
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMBGLVT0PE_index_0.html

Related links

* Space-X
http://www.space-x.ch/
* Advanced Moon micro-Imager Experiment (AMIE)
http://www.space-x.ch/Amie.htm