Europeans Crash Ship Into Moon
They did so intentionally, of course, but it sounds funny, doesn't it? Telescopes on earth were able to capture the image of the craft hitting the intended target zone in the Lake of excellence.
The SMART-1 spacecraft slammed into volcanic plain called the Lake of Excellence at 1 1/4 miles per second right on time. The impact was captured by observers on Earth, and scientists hoped the resulting cloud of dust and debris would provide clues to the geologic composition of the site.
"That's it — we are in the Lake of Excellence," said spacecraft operations chief Octavio Camino as applause broke out in the European Space Agency's mission control center in Darmstadt, Germany. "We have landed."
Minutes later, a video screen on the control room wall showed an image of the bright flash from the impact. The infrared image was captured by the Canada France Hawaii Telescope on Mount Kea, in Hawaii.
"It was a great mission and a great success and now it's over," said mission manager Gerhard Schwehm.
During its months in orbit around the moon, the spacecraft scanned the lunar surface from orbit and took high-resolution pictures. But its primary mission was testing a new, efficient, ion propulsion system that officials hope to use on future interplanetary missions, including the BepiColombo mission to Mercury slated for 2013.
SMART-1 was launched into Earth's orbit by an Ariane-5 booster rocket from Kourou, French Guiana, in September 2003. It used its ion engine to slowly raise its orbit over 14 months until the moon's gravity grabbed it.
The engine, which uses electricity from the craft's solar panels to produce a stream of charged particles called ions, generates only small amounts of thrust but only needed 176 pounds of xenon fuel.
Ground controllers learned to adjust to the slow but continuous acceleration from the ion engine, requiring them to check the craft's course more often in contrast to the one-time push from a rocket. U.S. astronauts on Apollo missions flew to the moon in just three days, launched by giant Saturn-V rockets.
Interesting demonstration of the technology, of course, but it is not exactly the express route. The craft was launched in September, 2003. I don't think the ion engine is going to be real practical for manned missions just yet.
SMART-1, a cube measuring roughly a yard on each side, took the long way to the moon — more than 62 million miles instead of the direct route of 217,000 to 250,000 miles. But ESA did it for a relatively cheap $140 million.
Here's the ESA website where they have some neat animations and photos. It does not have the impact pictures up yet, but there is on with the AP story linked above.
