Smart-1 Completes Three Year Moon Mission.

SMART-1 which was launched into Earth's orbit in September 2003 ended its odyssey on September 3rd 2006, with a planned crash at the speed of 2 kilometers per second. Its final lunar resting place is located at 46.2º West longitude and 34.2º South latitude, which is known as the 'Lake of Excellence'. The confirmation of the end of the journey reached European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) at 07:42:22 CEST (05:42:22 UT).

Smart-1 was designed to test new technologies for exploring space as well as to study the evolution of moon's surface. The mission is being hailed as a very successful one. Not only has it helped in proving new technologies, it has also helped in increasing the understanding of the Moon.

Smart-1 is Europe's first mission to use an ion engine instead of chemical combustion to reach its destination. The engine uses electricity from the craft's solar panels to produce a stream of charged particles called ions. It may be slower than the conventional engine, but it uses very little fuel. This thus is an ideal technique for missions that have to travel a long way without carrying a large volume of fuel. The officials hope to use such engines on future interplanetary missions, including the BepiColombo mission to Mercury slated for 2013.

Smart-1's scientific instrument D-CIXS, a demonstrator compact X-ray spectrometer, which has obtained mineral maps of the Moon's composition, will help to determine if the Moon was formed from terrestrial debris after a collision or mostly from a planet-sized object that crashed into the Earth. Furthermore, Smart-1's camera AMIE has provided the best ever digital maps of the moon which would help in greater understanding of the Moon.

The Project scientist of the mission, Professor Bernard Foing said, “Smart-1 has shown new views about the origin, evolution, and shaping processes of Earth's satellite. The analysis of data and the experience from the mission will be instrumental in planning future lunar exploration."

SMART-1 has given the world a huge wealth of data pertaining to the moon’s origin and evolution. This precious data will have to be analyzed in the months and years to come to know more about the moon.