SMART-1 ready for launch

MOON DAILY

SMART-1 will be the first ESA mission to test solar-electric propulsion as a main propulsion system. It will also test advanced miniaturisation technology which will pave the way for future planetary missions.

Paris - Sep 22, 2003
The launch date for ESA's SMART-1 mission to the Moon is confirmed as during the night of 27-28 September 2003. The 'launch window' will be 8:02 p.m. to 8:21 p.m. on Saturday, 27 September, local time in Kourou, French Guiana, and 1:02 a.m. to 1:21 a.m. on Sunday, 28 September, CEST.

Earlier last week, the SMART-1 spacecraft completed the first 30 metres of its trip to the Moon when it was put on board its Ariane 5 launcher at the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana.

As ESA scientists and engineers watched, the spacecraft looked very small, with its Ariane 5 mounting adapter, when it was raised the 30 metres up to the top of the launcher inside the Final Assembly Building (BAF). Within an hour it was sitting on the rocket's upper stage.

The spacecraft is pictured here being made ready for flight and having its solar panel array protection removed. The next step is to enclose the spacecraft with the 2.6-metre raising cylinder, which carries the second passenger satellite, E-Bird, on top of SMART-1.

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MOON DAILY

Lunar Prospecting With Chandra

Huntsville - Sep 16, 2003
Observations of the bright side of the Moon with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have detected oxygen, magnesium, aluminum and silicon over a large area of the lunar surface. The abundance and distribution of those elements will help to determine how the Moon was formed.

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