PYTHOM - Space Expeditions

	Pythom Home
	Latest News
	Expedition List
	The Dream
	About

Check those solar panels! They got Europe to the Moon

Dec 13, 2004 18: 20 EST
Previously published Nov 17, 2004 19: 36 EST

ESA’s SMART-1 (Small Missions for Advanced Research and Technology) is successfully making its first orbit of the Moon, reports the European Space Agency (ESA).

Sun to power interplanetary cruises

The main purpose of the first part of the SMART-1 mission, concluding with the arrival at the Moon, was to demonstrate new spacecraft technologies. In particular, the solar-electric propulsion system was tested over a long spiralling trip to the Moon of more than 84 million kilometres. This is a distance comparable to an interplanetary cruise.

Using gravity between planets

For the first time ever, gravity-assist manoeuvres, which use the gravitational pull of the approaching Moon, were performed by an electrically propelled spacecraft. The success of this test is important to the prospects for future interplanetary missions using ion engines.

Image based self-positioning

SMART-1 has demonstrated new techniques for eventually achieving autonomous spacecraft navigation. The OBAN experiment tested navigation software on ground computers to determine the exact position and velocity of the spacecraft using images of celestial objects taken by the AMIE camera on SMART-1 as references.

Once used on board future spacecraft, the technique demonstrated by OBAN will allow spacecraft to know where they are in space and how fast they are moving, limiting the need for intervention by ground control teams.

Deep-space communication: Radio transmissions at very high frequencies

SMART-1 also carried out deep-space communication tests, with the KaTE and RSIS experiments, consisting of testing radio transmissions at very high frequencies compared to traditional radio frequencies.

Such transmissions will allow the transfer of ever-increasing volumes of scientific data from future spacecraft.

Let's talk again soon, in the next laser beam!

With the Laser Link experiment, SMART-1 tested the feasibility of pointing a laser beam from Earth at a spacecraft moving at deep-space distances for future communication purposes.

And it saved fuel too

In all, SMART-1 clocked up 332 orbits around Earth. It fired its engine 289 times during the cruise phase, operating for a total of about 3700 hours.

Only 59 kilograms of xenon propellant were used (out of 82 kilograms). Overall, the engine performed extremely well, enabling the spacecraft to reach the Moon two months earlier than expected.

Solar power 10 times more efficient than chemicals

The ESA new solar-electric propulsion technology is 10 times more efficient that the usual chemical systems employed when traveling in space.

"Smart-1 has used solar panels to drive an ion, or charged- particle, engine on a ``leisurely'' voyage to the moon. The engine has been fired up intermittently during the craft's journey, with momentum carrying it the rest of the time," ESA's chief scientist, Bernard Foing, said in a telephone interview with Bloomberg.

"It is only the second time that ion technology has been used as a space mission's primary propulsion system, the first being NASA's Deep Space 1 probe in 1998," ESA told Bloomberg.

Image: SMART-1's view as it nears the Moon, courtesy ESA

Feature Stories

Latest News

more news

	ExWeb updated expeditions list - Space! Full Story
	Titan: Rain fall, methane rivers, volcanoes spewing ice Full Story
	Life in Space - leaving Eden in search for Paradise Full Story
	ET coming closer: Suns like ours spotted with planetary debris dis Full Story
	The Wow signal - listen up! Full Story
	Mars Society: Looking for a few good Martians - that's YOU buddy! Full Story
	The Space Frontier Foundation Full Story