Posted on 08/31/2006 6:55:01 PM PDT by saganite
BERLIN (AP) - Europe's first mission to the moon is due to crash-land in a cloud of dust and rock Sunday, ending a three-year voyage that gathered data about the lunar surface and tested a new engine intended to propel future spacecraft to Mercury and other planets.
The European Space Agency's SMART-1 should hit its target on a volcanic plain called the Lake of Excellence at 0541GMT, orbiting lower and lower as it makes its final approach at 2 kilometers per second, or 7,200 kilometers per hour (4,475 mph).
Observatories on Earth will try to capture images of the impact and the resulting debris cloud, and European space officials hope their study of the debris will provide information about the minerals present at the impact site.
Even before the mission ends, however, ESA is already celebrating the main goal _ a successful test of the ion engine they hope to use for future interplanetary missions, such as the BepiColombo joint mission to Mercury with Japan's space agency slated for launch in 2013.
"The prime object of this mission was to test the ion propulsion," mission manager Gerhard Schwehm told The Associated Press.
"This is a very efficient means to get a spacecraft over large distances with a very small mass of fuel. It worked really well."
Instead of burning rocket fuel, the PPS-1350 engine from French aerospace firm Snecma generates a stream of electrically charged atoms called ions. That creates minuscule amounts of thrust _ roughly enough to hold up a postcard.
Riding that small, steady push, SMART-1 made it to the moon in 14 months, gradually accelerating and raising its orbit around the Earth until it was high enough to be grabbed by the moon's gravity.
It was launched into Earth orbit using an Ariane-5 rocket from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guinea, on Sept. 27, 2003.
By contrast, the first manned U.S. moon mission, Apollo 11, took 76 hours to reach lunar orbit in 1969, hurled by a Saturn-V rocket.
SMART-1, a cube measuring roughly a meter (about a yard) on each side, took the long way _ over 100 million kilometers (62 million miles) instead of the direct route of 350,000 to 400,000 kilometers (217,000 to 250,000 miles).
But ESA did it for a relatively cheap ?110 million (US$140 million) and on only 80 kilograms (176 pounds) of xenon fuel. NASA's Deep Space 1, launched in 1998, also used an ion engine.
ESA flight controllers and scientists at mission control in Darmstadt, Germany, honed their skills in managing the different rhythm of spaceflight with ion propulsion, where the continuous thrust requires more careful monitoring than coasting after the one-time impulse from a rocket.
"It's different in how you operate the spacecraft in your operations center," Schehm said. "You have to determine your orbit more frequently."
Although the moon has already been explored by U.S. astronauts, ESA says SMART-1 gathered valuable information as it orbited.
Its miniaturized X-ray and infrared spectrometers probed the mineral content of the surface to better understand the distribution of elements over the entire moon, not just the small areas explored by astronauts.
The information could increase scientists' understanding of how the moon's surface evolved and help test a theory that the moon originated when another astronomical body slammed into the Earth.
The spacecraft has also been taking high-resolution pictures of the surface with a miniaturized camera.
The mission has contributed to ESA's cooperation with India's space program, which will use SMART-1's spectrometers on its Chandrayaan-1 moon mission slated for 2007 or 2008.
ESA officials say the planned crash site at the Lake of Excellence_ at coordinates 43.5 degrees west and 36.4 degrees south _ will be in darkness and not directly lit by the sun's rays at the time of impact, though there will be some illumination from light reflected from Earth, or earthshine.
Geographic features on the moon are named lakes and seas _ such as the Sea of Tranquillity, where Apollo 11 landed _ even though they are in fact dry.
If the debris cloud from SMART-1 rises more than 20 kilometers (12 miles) and reaches sunlight, it may appear as a bright spot against the darkness visible using an amateur telescope or binoculars.
The moon will be visible from North and South America and the East Pacific at the moment of impact, but not from Europe.
ping
I think a really great way of guaranteeing your space mission is successful is to make sure one of the mission objectives is to "slam into something twenty one hundred miles in diameter".
Too bad we can't know the exact time of the "landing" for a possible glimpse.
That's just a way of finishing it off in dramatic fashion. The mission was a total success as was the deep space one mission using Ion drive.
SMART-1 should hit its target on a volcanic plain called the Lake of Excellence at 0541GMT
Notice they never mentioned the probe found the Apollo Landing Sites?
Did it? I didn't know it was looking for it. Would have been kind of difficult considering it didn't carry the necessary imaging equipment.
You didn't hear about the secret post Appollo missions?
Seems like I read that one of the coming missions would try to get some photos of the old landing sites. I'm not sure it's really a priority and all it would do is set off another round of conspiracy theories. Personally I hope they're preserved as historical sites in the event we ever do return to the moon in force.
Still no word if the mars rovers have found the flag for Sheila Jackson Lee. :~)
Here's a quick link to the FAQ's on the ESA site-
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/SMART-1/SEMWSW5LARE_0.html
(Check out Questions 7 & 8 for a chuckle ;)
Questions a brain dead green indoctrinated twit would ask. Pretty funny.
A chuckle?
How about LMAO!
An interesting concept for returning to the Moon is based on the idea of first sending robots that can slowly prep the place, saving astronauts a lot of work.
The goal, of course, is to eventually start mining and processing Helium-3 for shipment back to Earth. A single cargo of it would be worth trillions of dollars.
What you want your robots to do when they land, is to first sweep the radioactive and extremely abrasive dust in the area of your base, to get down to the bedrock. Then you want them to tunnel a large, cylindrical shaft straight down, expelling the debris.
The human habitation will fit inside the top of the cylinder like a cork. Its top, in turn, will be about ground level, and astronauts can take a sealed elevator inside the habitation to end up on its "roof", ready to walk the surface.
The cylinder tunneling robot will continue down to some depth, then it will be adjusted to dig a horizontal shaft. Even if it only digs at a rate on 1" a day, in a single year it will have dug 30 feet.
Alternatively, the robotic tunneler could start by digging a shaft into the side of a cliff horizontally. This would be much easier initially, but the tunnel would need lightweight ceramic reinforcing rods inserted into the rock, which would also need to be sprayed with a pressure sealant.
It would have the advantage of not needing to be cylindrical, and the habitation would act as its "front door". This has the most potential for lots of area inside the tunnels, which could serve all sorts of purposes.
But the bottom line is the more work done by robots before humans arrive, the more time the humans have for other work.
The goal, of course, is to eventually start mining and processing Helium-3 for shipment back to Earth. A single cargo of it would be worth trillions of dollars.The first goal, of course, is to build a fusion reactor that produces more than it consumes. By that time a single cargo of Helium-3 might be worth trillions, due to inflation.
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