News
SMART-1's first images from the Moon ESA's SMART-1 captured its first close-range images of the Moon this January, during a sequence of test lunar observations from an altitude between 1000 and 5000 kilometres above the lunar surface.SMART-1 entered its first orbit around the Moon on 15 November 2004. It has spent the two months following spiralling down to the Moon and testing its array of instruments. The first four days after being captured by the lunar gravity were very critical. There had been the risk, being in an 'unstable' trajectory, of escaping the Moon's orbit or crashing onto the surface. Because of this, the electric propulsion system (or 'ion engine') started a thrust to stabilise the capture.
|