SMART-1 was a European Space Agency satellite that orbited the Moon. It was launched on 27 September 2003 at 23:14 UTC from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana. "SMART-1" stands for Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology-1, part of the Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology programme. On 3 September 2006 (05:42 UTC), SMART-1 was deliberately crashed into the Moon's surface, ending its mission.
Spacecraft design
SMART-1 was about one meter across (3.3 ft), and lightweight in comparison to other probes. Its launch mass was 367 kg or 809 pounds, of which 287 kg (633 lb) was non-propellant.
It was propelled by a solar-powered Hall-effect thruster (Snecma PPS-1350-G) using 82 kg of xenon gas contained in a 50 litres tank at a pressure of 150 bar at launch. The ion engine thruster used an electrostatic field to ionize the xenon and accelerate the ions achieving a specific impulse of 16.1 kN·s/kg (1,640 seconds), more than three times the maximum for chemical rockets. One kg of propellant (1/350 to 1/300 of the total mass of the spacecraft) produced a delta-v of about 45 m/s. The electric propulsion subsystem weighted 29 kg with a peak power consumption of 1,200 watts. SMART-1 was the first in the program of ESA's Small Missions for Advanced Research and Technology.
The solar arrays made capable of 1850 W at the beginning of the mission, were able to provide the maximum set of 1,190 W to the thruster, giving a nominal thrust of 68 mN, hence an acceleration of 0.2 mm/s2 or 0.7 m/s per hour (i.e., just under 0.00002 g of acceleration). As with all ion-engine powered craft, orbital maneuvers were not carried out in short bursts but very gradually. The particular trajectory taken by SMART-1 to the Moon required thrusting for about one third to one half of every orbit. When spiraling away from the Earth thrusting was done on the perigee part of the orbit. At the end of the mission, the thruster had demonstrated the following capability:
Thruster operating time: 5000 h Xenon throughput: 82 kg Total Impulse: 1.2 MN-s Total ΔV: 3.9 km/s
As part of the European Space Agency's strategy to build very inexpensive and relatively small spaceships, the total cost of SMART-1 was a relatively small 110 million euros (about 170 million U.S. dollars). SMART-1 was designed and developed by the Swedish Space Corporation on behalf of ESA. Assembly of the spacecraft was carried out by Saab Space in Linköping. Tests of the spacecraft were directed by Swedish Space Corporation and executed by Saab Space. The project manager at ESA was Giuseppe Racca until the spacecraft achieved the moon operational orbit. He was then replaced by Gerhard Schwehm for the Science phase. The project manager at the Swedish Space Corporation was Peter Rathsman. The Principal Project Scientist was Bernard Foing. The Ground Segment Manager during the preparation phase was Mike McKay and the Spacecraft Operations manager was Octavio Camino.
Instruments
AMIE The Advanced Moon micro-Imager Experiment was a miniature colour camera for lunar imaging. The CCD camera with three filters of 750, 900 and 950 nm was able to take images with an average pixel resolution of 80 m (about 260 ft). The camera weighed 2.1 kg (about 4.5 lb) and had a power consumption of 9 watts.
D-CIXS The Demonstration of a Compact X-ray Spectrometer was an X-ray telescope for the identification of chemical elements on the lunar surface. It detected the X-ray fluorescence (XRF) of crystal compounds created through the interaction of the electron shell with the solar wind particles to measure the abundance of the three main components: magnesium, silicon and aluminium. The detection of iron, calcium and titanium depended on the solar activity. The detection range for X-rays was 0.5 to 10 keV. The spectrometer and XSM (described below) together weighed 5.2 kg and had a power consumption of 18 watts.
XSM The X-ray solar monitor studied the solar variability to complement D-CIXS measurements.
SIR The Smart-1 Infrared Spectrometer was an infrared spectrometer for the identification of mineral spectra of olivine and pyroxene. It detected wavelengths from 0.93 to 2.4 μm with 256 channels. The package weighed 2.3 kg and had a power consumption of 4.1 watts.
EPDP The Electric Propulsion Diagnostic Package was to acquire data on the new propulsion system on SMART-1. The package weighed 0.8 kg and had a power consumption of 1.8 watts.
SPEDE The Spacecraft Potential, Electron and Dust Experiment. The experiment weighed 0.8 kg and had a power consumption of 1.8 watts. Its function was to measure the properties and density of the plasma around the spacecraft, either as a Langmuir probe or as an electric field probe. SPEDE observed the emission of the spacecraft's ion engine and the "wake" the Moon leaves to the solar wind. Unlike most other instruments that have to be shut down to prevent damage, SPEDE could keep measuring inside radiation belts and in solar storms, such as the Halloween 2003 solar storms. It was built by Finnish Meteorological Institute and its name was intentionally chosen so that its acronym is the same as the nickname of Spede Pasanen, a famous Finnish movie actor, movie producer, and inventor. The algorithms developed for SPEDE were later used in the ESA lander Philae.
KATE Ka band TT&C (telemetry, tracking and control) Experiment. The experiment weighed 6.2 kg and had a power consumption of 26 watts. The Ka-band transponder was designed as precursor for BepiColombo to perform radio science investigations and to monitor the dynamical performance of the electric propulsion system.
Flight
SMART-1 was launched 27 September 2003 together with Insat 3E and eBird 1, by an Ariane 5 rocket from the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana. After 42 minutes it was released into a geostationary transfer orbit of 7,035 × 42,223 km. From there it used its Solar Electric Primary Propulsion (SEPP) to gradually spiral out during thirteen months.
The orbit can be seen up to 26 October 2004 at spaceref.com, when the orbit was 179,718 × 305,214 km. On that date, after the 289th engine pulse, the SEPP had accumulated a total on-time of nearly 3,648 hours out of a total flight time of 8,000 hours, hence a little less than half of its total mission. It consumed about 58.8 kg of xenon and produced a delta-v of 2,737 m/s (46.5 m/s per kg xenon, 0.75 m/s per hour on-time). It was powered on again on 15 November for a planned burn of 4.5 days to enter fully into lunar orbit. It took until February 2005 using the electric thruster to decelerate into the final orbit 300–3,000 km above the Moon's surface. The end of mission performance demonstrated by the propulsion system is stated above.
+Summary of osculating geocentric orbital elements Epoch (UTC) Perigee (km) Apogee (km) Eccentricity Inclination (deg)(to Earth equator) Period (h) 27 September 2003 ~7,035 ~42,223 ~0.714 ~6.9 ~10.6833 26 October 2003, 21:20:00.0 8,687.994 44,178.401 0.671323 6.914596 11.880450 19 November 2003, 04:29:48.4 10,843.910 46,582.165 0.622335 6.861354 13.450152 19 December 2003, 06:41:47.6 13,390.351 49,369.049 0.573280 6.825455 15.366738 29 December 2003, 05:21:47.8 17,235.509 54,102.642 0.516794 6.847919 18.622855 19 February 2004, 22:46:08.6 20,690.564 65,869.222 0.521936 6.906311 24.890737 19 March 2004, 00:40:52.7 20,683.545 66,915.919 0.527770 6.979793 25.340528 25 August 2004, 00:00:00 37,791.261 240,824.363 0.728721 6.939815 143.738051 19 October 2004, 21:30:45.9 69,959.278 292,632.424 0.614115 12.477919 213.397970 24 October 2004, 06:12:40.9 179,717.894 305,214.126 0.258791 20.591807 330.053834 After its last perigee on 2 November,SMART-1: On Course for Lunar Capture | Moon Today – Your Daily Source of Moon News www.moontoday.net on 11 November 2004 it passed through the Earth-Moon L1 Lagrangian Point and into the area dominated by the Moon's gravitational influence, and at 1748 UT on 15 November passed the first periselene of its lunar orbit. The osculating orbit on that date was 6,704 × 53,208 km,SMART-1 completes its first orbit around the Moon | Moon Today – Your Daily Source of Moon News www.moontoday.net with an orbital period of 129 hours, although the actual orbit was accomplished in only 89 hours. This illustrates the significant impact that the engine burns have on the orbit and marks the meaning of the osculating orbit, which is the orbit that would be travelled by the spacecraft if at that instant all perturbations, including thrust, would cease.
+Summary of osculating selenocentric orbital elements Epoch (UTC) Periselene (km) Aposelene (km) Eccentricity Inclination (deg)(to Moon equator) Period (h) 15 November 2004, 17:47:12.1 6,700.720 53,215.151 0.776329 81.085 129.247777 4 December 2004 10:37:47.3 5,454.925 20,713.095 0.583085 83.035 37.304959 9 January 2005, 15:24:55.0 2,751.511 6,941.359 0.432261 87.892 8.409861 28 February 2005, 05:18:39.9 2,208.659 4,618.220 0.352952 90.063603 4.970998 25 April 2005, 08:19:05.4 2,283.738 4,523.111 0.328988 90.141407 4.949137 16 May 2005, 09:08:52.9 2,291.250 4,515.857 0.326807 89.734929 4.949919 20 June 2005, 10:21:37.1 2,256.090 4,549.196 0.336960 90.232619 4.947432 18 July 2005, 11:14:28.0 2,204.645 4,600.376 0.352054 90.263741 4.947143 ESA announced on 15 February 2005 an extension of the mission of SMART-1 by one year until August 2006. This date was later shifted to 3 September 2006 to enable further scientific observations from Earth.ESA Portal – SMART-1 manoeuvres prepare for mission end www.esa.int
Lunar impact
SMART-1 impacted the Moon's surface, as planned, on 3 September 2006 at 05:42:22 UTC, ending its mission. Moving at approximately 2,000 m/s (4,500 mph), SMART-1 created an impact visible with ground telescopes from Earth. It is hoped that not only will this provide some data simulating a meteor impact, but also that it might expose materials in the ground, like water ice, to spectroscopic analysis.
ESA originally estimated that impact occurred at . In 2017, the impact site was identified from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter data at . At the time of impact, the Moon was visible in North and South America, and places in the Pacific Ocean, but not Europe, Africa, or western Asia.
This project has generated data and know-how that will be used for other missions, such as the ESA's BepiColombo mission to Mercury.
Important events and discoveries
27 September 2003: SMART-1 launched from the European Spaceport in Kourou by an Ariane 5 launcher. 17 June 2004: SMART-1 took a test image of Earth with the camera that would later be used for Moon closeup pictures. It shows parts of Europe and Africa. It was taken on 21 May with the AMIE camera. 2 November 2004: Last perigee of Earth orbit. 15 November 2004: First perilune of lunar orbit. 15 January 2005: Calcium detected in Mare Crisium. 26 January 2005: First close up pictures of the lunar surface sent back. 27 February 2005: Reached final orbit around the Moon with an orbital period of about five hours. 15 April 2005: The search for PELs begins. 3 September 2006: Mission ends with a planned crash into the Moon during orbit number 2,890.ESA – SMART-1 – Intense final hours for SMART-1 www.esa.int
Smart-1 Ground Segment and Operations
Smart-1 operations were conducted from the ESA European Space Operations Center ESOC in Darmstadt Germany led by the Spacecraft Operations Manager Octavio Camino.
The ground segment of Smart-1 was a good example of infrastructure reuse at ESA: Flight Dynamics infrastructure and Data distribution System (DDS) from Rosetta, Mars Express and Venus Express. The generic mission control system software SCOS 2000, and a set of generic interface elements use at ESA for the operations of their missions.
The use of CCSDS TLM and TC standards permitted a cost effective tailoring of seven different terminals of the ESA Tracking network (ESTRACK) plus Weilheim in Germany (DLR).