The Agency's (ESA) director of science, David Southwood, said SMART-1 -- a box about the size of a washing machine but packed with innovations -- had made "technologically huge" contributions to the exploration of space.

"It's a great satisfaction to see how well the mission achieved its technological objectives and did great lunar science at the same time," added SMART-1's project chief, Giuseppe Racca.

They spoke at a news conference telecast from mission control in Darmstadt, Germany, a day after SMART-1, at the end of its nearly three-year mission, was deliberately crashed into the Lake of Excellence in the hope of coaxing insights into lunar dust and minerals.

Launched by Ariane-5 rocket on September 28 2003, SMART-1 tested a new form of space propulsion called the ion engine.

Ion engines use electricity, derived from solar panels, to charge atoms of xenon gas released from a small fuel tank. These charged atoms, called ions, are expelled at high speed from the probe's tailpipe, providing a thrust that, while weak, progressively builds up speed in the frictionless vacuum of space.

Another breakthrough was the use of laser to communicate with Earth. SMART-1 sent back data up to 130,000 kilometers (81,000 miles) from home.

SMART-1's package of seven scientific instruments, weighing just 19 kilos (41.8 pounds), was also lavished with praise for combining performance with miniaturisation.

Its so-called AMIE camera, weighing just half a kilo (1.1 pounds), took 20,000 pictures with sharp definition of objects as little as 40 metres (yards) across, said the instrument's scientist, Jean-Luc Josset.

The scientists showed what they admitted was a sentimental sequence of images sent back by AMIE -- footage of the Moon passing in front of Earth on August 29, just four days before SMART-1 made its pre-programmed plummet into the lunar dust.

Another picture, assembled in a mosaic, showed part of the South Pole-Aitken Basin, a crater on the far side of the Moon that, at 2,500 kilometers (1,300 miles) across, is the largest and oldest-known impact ring in the Solar System -- yet was only spotted in 1994.

Among other achievements, the craft's X-ray telescope and infrared spectrometer carried out the first detailed inventory of the Moon's elements and minerals, said project scientist Bernard Foing.

Foing said that, in some respects, the hard work was about to begin. The probe sent back reams of data that will take scientists years to analyse.

They hope the data will throw up clues as to the origins of the Moon itself -- one theory is that it was born from a collision from a space object that ripped a chunk out of Earth.

And it may also unlock knowledge about whether the Moon, long written off as hopelessly barren, may contain water, the substance for life, near its surface.

SMART-1 has been looking closely at polar areas that are permanently shaded from light. The theory goes thus: If frozen water lies there under the dust, perhaps deposited in the distant past by a comet, it could be harnessed for fuel and sustenance by a future lunar colony.

The SMART-1 ion motor will be used for ESA's mission to Mercury, BepiColombo, which is due to launch in 2013, while the X-ray telescope, D-CIXS, will be deployed on India's Chandrayan lunar probe, due for launch in 2007 or 2008.

The probe also set down records in value for money: it had a full-time staff of just seven and a total budget of just 120 million euros (151 million dollars).

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