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First European Moon Probe Enters Orbit

Posted on: Wednesday, 17 November 2004, 12:00 CST

First European Moon probe enters orbit

PARIS, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Europe's first Moon probe, SMART-1, was put into its lunar orbit on Monday evening as planned, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced here Tuesday.

Thirteen months after its launch by Ariane 5, the unmanned satellite SMART-1, whose mission is to map the Moon's topography and mineralogical composition, "reached its first lunar orbit on Nov. 15 at 18:53 local time (1753 GMT)," SMART-1 Project Manager Giuseppe Racca said.

The orbit, between 5,000 and 6,000 km to the moon, is expected to be modified within four days. And after a series of adjustments, the satellite is to gradually drop into its working orbit on Jan. 13, 2005.

SMART-1 will not land on the Moon, but will work from its orbit, which will vary from 300 km at the South Pole and 3,000 km at the North Pole, according to ESA.

The 370-kg satellite was launched in September 2003 and is powered by an ion engine. The engine has worked for more than 3, 300 hours and allows a distance of some 78 million km, loaded with 52 kg of fuel only.

With a payload of remote sensors designed mainly to seek water ice near the Moon's surface, SMART-1 broke a new path to future long- term missions in the solar system and would be a huge boost for setting up a human settlement, according to ESA.

The aim of SMART -- an acronym of Small Missions for Advanced Research and Technology -- is to trial cutting-edge small science to see if it could work in extended and even manned missions to the planets.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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