SMART-1 ends successful mission to the moon
The European Space Agency (ESA) SMART-1 probe, which has monitored and mapped the moon in great detail during its 16-month mission, has crash landed onto the moon's surface in a spectacular end-of-mission coup de grace. The SMART-1 probe examined the moon's geography and mineral composition, and made use of novel technologies, such as the probe's highly efficient ion drive. The mission had exceeded expectations - the original mission was to last only six months, but the SMART-1 performed so well, the length of the mission was almost tripled. '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.' The probe also tested novel communications and navigation techniques - also successfully executed. The data will give researchers new ideas about the formation of the moon and Earth. While the mission is now over, researchers will pore over the information SMART-1 has gleaned for years to come. 'This was tough work for the mission planners, but the lunar data archive we are now building is truly impressive,' said Gerhard Schwehm, ESA's SMART-1 Mission Manager. '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. 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,' he said. Some believe that the moon is the result of a vast impact, from a planet the size of Mars colliding with Earth some 4.5 billion years ago. Now the mission is finally over, the ESA decided to alter the probe's orbit, and give something to hungry astronomers on earth, who could observe the crash with telescopes. SMART-1 now rests in a crater in the Lake of Excellence, an area on the cusp between the light and dark areas of the moon. This area was chosen to accentuate the impact, making it more visible on Earth. The probe hit the moon's surface hard and fast at a low angle, around 2 km per second (some 7,200 km/h) at 5-10 degrees to the moon's surface. The impact was confirmed at 07:42 and 22 seconds Central European Time on the morning of Sunday 3 September when the Australian monitoring station lost contact with the probe.