Space Topics: SMART-1
Mission Facts
Spacecraft
Spacecraft Mass:
Total at launch: 370 kilograms/814 pounds
Payload: 19 kilograms/42 pounds
Fuel: 80 kilograms/176 pounds xenon
Spacecraft Description
Cube shape
Span excluding solar panels: 1 x 1 x 1 meters
Span with solar panels extended: 14 meters tip to tip
Mission Timeline
Launch date: September 27, 2003, from Kourou, French Guiana on a shared Ariane-5 ride to geostationary-transfer orbit (GTO).
Near Earth commissioning of technology and instruments: Until end 2003
Journey to Moon: Cruise phase from Earth to the Moon took around 13 months. September 2003 until November 2004
Gravity assist maneuvers (lunar resonances): August 19, September 15 and October 12, 2004
Arrival at Moon capture point (beginning of first lunar orbit, or first apolune): November 13, 2004
Operational orbit reached: January 2005
Start of lunar commissioning and scientific measurements: January 2005
Primary Mission End: July 2005
The science operations started in January 2005, for primary mission duration of six months.
Nominal Mission End: July 2006 (extended from July 2005).
Orbit
SMART-1 used a 16-month transfer orbit from GTO to lunar orbit insertion, and is now in a polar elliptical operational orbit varying from 300 kilometers/187 miles at the south pole to 3,000 kilometers/1,870 miles at the north pole.
Operations
Mission control
European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), Darmstadt, Germany. Communication with SMART-1 takes place for 8 hours twice a week, using various ESA network ground stations around the world.
Mission cost
About 110 million Euros for launch, spacecraft, payload and flight operations.
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