Europe readies for first moon mission with solar-powered

PARIS (AP) — It won’t be the quickest ride in history, but the European Space Agency’s SMART-1 spacecraft takes off this weekend for a trip to the moon — with an arrival date of December 2004.

The unmanned flight, Europe’s first to the moon, is scheduled to begin on Saturday with the launch of an Ariane 5 rocket from a base in Kourou, French Guiana.

The SMART-1, short for “Small Missions for Advanced Research and Technology,” will rely on energy generated by solar panels used by “ion engines” that provide a thrust of charged particles — the first time such technology has been used to get to the moon.

The craft, which weighs only 367 kilograms (807 pounds), will also pioneer miniaturized instrumentation that will be used to investigate the origins of the moon, the existence of water there and the possibility of building a permanent human base on the lunar surface.

Officials acknowledge there are quicker ways of getting to the moon, but they point to the Ç110 million (US$126 million) cost of the SMART-1 — about a fifth of a typical major science mission.

“It’s a very long journey, but it’s a way to go there very, very cheaply, with very little investment in terms of fuel,” said Franco Bonacina, an ESA spokesman.

The SMART-1 was developed for ESA by the Swedish Space Corporation with contributions from some 30 contractors from 11 European countries and the United States.

The craft will rely on the Ariane rocket to get it into orbit around the earth, and then the ion engines will work to gradually put it into a polar orbit over the moon.

SMART-1 should enter the lunar orbit by December 2004, and a month later will begin a six-month run of experiments. After that, scientists may extend the mission, depending on funding, Bonacina said.

(jc-jg)