Archives

Smart 1, the European spacecraft, left the earth on the Ariane-5 launcher on September 27, 2003. It should reach the moon in eighteen months with both a scientific and a technological mission. it was a real flight test for the French engineers and constructors who took part in this programme led by the European Space Agency (ESA). The Swedish Space Corporation built the spacecraft.

The Smart 1 (Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology) spacecraft installed on Ariane 5 was launched from Kourou (French Guiana) on September 27,2003. The launcher put it on an elliptical orbit scarcely 42 minutes later. Smart 1 will continue to revolve around the earth until it reaches Lagrange Point N 1, an invisible doorway in space, where the gravitational effects of the moon and the earth are in balance. Beyond this point it will be "captured" by lunar gravity and will achieve a wide orbit, flying over the lunar north and south poles.

"The Smart 1 mission is above all concerned with technology" Francis Rocard, Solar System Programme Manager at the French Space Agency (CNES) explains. The spacecraft uses solar-electric propulsion. "It is a world first" Christopher Koppel, manager of the propulsive system at Snecma Moteurs, the company that designed and constructed the engine, points out. "It not a new systems but it is the first time in Europe that it is used as mission's primary propulsion system".

Smart 1 is a small box, not quite one cubic metre and not weighing more than 370 kilograms. It has two solar panels, each one measuring 7 metres. as for the engine, the principle is to ionise a gas (xenon) through the electricity produced by the solar panels. The ions pass through an electric field at the back of the engine and then leave the engine thus producing an accelerated thrust in the opposite direction. "This system of continuous propulsion" Christopher Koppel adds, "is very fuel efficient. smart 1 will need 6 times less ergol than a traditional chemical rocket." In due course, it could be possible to consider more and more difficult and ambitious missions. The ion engine could enable to travel to the far reaches of the universe since it can accelerate for a long time and then slow down when it goes into orbit around a planet without requiring much fuel. It would then be possible to explore Neptune and its satellites and the Kuiper belt that extends beyond the Pluto planet. "Provided that the ion engine is combined with a chemical system and nuclear energy is used instead of solar energy," Francis Rocard adds. Since it does not carry much fuel it will be possible to take more instruments on future missions.

As well as it tests the ion engine Smart 1 has a scientific mission that should only begin in April 2005. "The spacecraft's engine is very fuel efficient but it has a very low thrust" Francis Rocard insists. The spacecraft will be able to carry out scientific investigations with a variety of instruments on board. For example, it will give a view of the lunar poles using a micro camera only just weighing 450 grams designed by the Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale (CNRS-Orsay) in collaboration with Space Exploration (Space X) in Neufchatel Switzerland. The spacecraft will also map the lunar surface chemical composition by analyzing X-rays. "These come from solar cosmic rays that bombard the moon and emit X-ray that interact with the atoms on the lunar surface. For the time being there are only three regions where lunar samples have been gathered and they do not seem to be correspond to the overall composition of the moon" Francis Rocard explains. Smart 1 should help to confirm if ice is present in the deep craters of the lunar poles over which it will fly. Finally, an infrared camera will allow to chart the moon's minerals, Smart 1 could confirm the theories regarding how the Moon was formed. "The theory of the "Giant impact" according to which the Moon was formed following the violent collision of a smaller planet the size of Mars with the Earth, 4 or 5 billion years ago".

Meanwhile the little spacecraft is on its way. The engine had been running for 1,000 hours on December 27,2003 but it still has a long way to go before it fulfils its mission

Delphine Barrais

Websites www.esa.int/export/SPECIAL/SMART-land and www.ssc.se/ssd/smart1.html

Actualite En France

www.Pathmaconstruction.com

www.ceylincoproperties.com

www.ppilk.com

www.crescat.com

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries

Produced by Lake House
Copyright © 2003 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager