After a series of postponements, the SMART-1 spacecraft took off at the end of the week on top of an Ariane 5 rocket.
Avi Blizovsky
In the photo: from top left: the SMART-1 spacecraft before being mounted on the launch vehicle; Top right - a simulation of the creation of the moon from a layer of rocks blown off the earth's crust due to a collision with a planet the size of Mars; Bottom right - the Harian 5 missile; And below left: the spacecraft's ion engine
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Europa's journey to the moon begins
The European Space Agency's first mission to the Moon has launched. The Smart 1 spacecraft was launched from the Coro spaceport in French Guiana at 23:13 GMT (02:13 Sunday Israel time). The Ariane 5 rocket with its mighty engines performed an amazing sight into the night sky. (This news is updated at 03:25).
Smart-1 will test a new type of propulsion on its way to the moon and then on its mission to map the surface of the moon when it arrives there in 2005.
"Just because astronauts have reached the moon, it doesn't mean they've really discovered everything there is to find," says Prof. David Sherwood, the European Space Agency's scientific director.
About the mission of Smart-1 and the spacecraft itself - in the article from a few days ago that is presented here.
On the night between Saturday and Sunday, the European spacecraft should be launched to the moon
26/9/2003
By Avi Blizovsky
The control personnel have already approved the launch of the European Smart 1 spacecraft for its lunar mission shortly after 23:00 p.m. this coming Saturday, 02:00 a.m. Israel time (before the transition to winter time). She will ride into space on an Ariane 5 rocket from the Kourou spaceport in French Guinea.
Smart 1 will also try an innovative type of propulsion in its mission where it will map the patterns of the surface. The tiny instruments on the spacecraft will give scientists accurate data on what the moon is really made of. This should help them confirm the theory that the moon was formed in a collision between the earth and another object.
SMART, short for Small Missions for Advanced Research and Technology, is the first attempt by the European Space Agency to carry out an independent mission to the Moon. The spaceship is actually a technological demonstration and it was built in a relatively short time and at a very low cost. The final bill came to only 110 million euros, including launch costs.
The achievement was made possible in part through the use of new management methodologies as well as the use of innovative miniaturization and design techniques. The size of the spacecraft is 367 square meter by XNUMX square meter and it weighs XNUMX kilograms, which gives it the appearance of a space toy. But Smart is wrapped in kit that will change the nature of Europe's future expensive missions.
The main interest is in the integrated propulsion system - solar energy and electricity that will push Smart towards the moon. The electric motor works by launching a beam of xenon atoms (some pronounce it xenon) from the back of the spacecraft. This creates a thrust force in the opposite direction that pushes the spacecraft forward. The energy to operate the electronic systems is produced using solar collectors, hence the name "solar-electric engine".
Ion engines do not produce a sudden thrust that provides the spacecraft with momentum in the direction of travel like a chemical engine but rather a small and continuous push. Nevertheless, over time, the ion engine is more efficient and is planned to be used in many future spacecraft. However, over short distances, the ion engine is very slow. Smart will take 15 months to reach its destination which is actually beyond the cosmic corner.
Scientists have been developing ion engines for decades but only recently have they been put to real use. This follows new developments in photometric cell technology that made it possible to improve the spacecraft's solar wings. The Deep Space 1 spacecraft from 1998 had such an engine and there is a European satellite - Artemis, which uses such an engine to maintain its position in orbit around the Earth.
"The spacecraft will circle the moon in a spiral, decreasing its altitude all the way up to the point where we will start to feel the moon's gravity," says Dr. Bernard Poing, the scientific director of Smart 1. "Later, we will start spiraling down, to get closer to the moon and reach orbit The final scientific one, from which we can make all the observations we want and then all the new miniaturized devices will also come to light." Poing said.
One of the instruments is the D-Cixs, Britain's contribution to the project, which will provide an inventory of the chemical elements on the surface of the moon. "We think we know what the moon is made of because the Apollo astronauts were there and brought about half a ton of rock samples, but they were on the side facing the Earth, on the equator in flat areas," said Prof. Manuel Grande, from the instrument team.
"These regions are not typical lunar regions and what is more important, they are not the oldest either. What we need now is a global survey that will answer the question of what the moon is made of, and Smart 1 with our spectrometer at X-ray frequencies will do that."
This information will help scientists confirm the currently preferred theory regarding the creation of the moon - the big impact theory says that an object the size of Mars crashed into the early Earth (4.5 billion years ago) and actually merged with it. Fragments of the damaged earth's crust were thrown into space and some of them reorganized to form the moon. The theory is supported by the similarity in the composition of rocks on Earth and the Moon. If this theory is correct, the D-Cixs should find that the Moon contains less iron than Earth relative to lighter elements such as magnesium and aluminum.
If all goes well, many of the technologies we are currently experimenting with at Smart, especially in the field of communication, navigation and propulsion systems, will find their way into the next generation of spacecraft to be developed in Europe. The Bepi-Colombo mission to Mercury, for example, which should be launched at the end of the decade is also planned to use a ion engine. Says Poing: "The goal is to gain more knowledge about the universe, about the solar system, and to educate the public about our origins and the scientific challenges. It will also try new technologies whose derivatives will be able to help in the day-to-day lives of all citizens." Prof. Grande concluded.
The planned launch window is between 02:02-02:21 on Sunday morning.
Idan the moon
For news at the BBC
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