SMART-1

SMART-1 was a Swedish-designed European Space Agency satellite that orbited around the Moon. It was launched on September 27, 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. On September 3, 2006 (05:42 UTC), SMART-1 was deliberately crashed into the Moon's surface, ending its mission.

Spacecraft design

SMART-1 was about one metre across, 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 xenon propellant, of which there was 82 kg (50 litres by volume at a pressure of 150 bar) at launch. The thrusters used an electrostatic field to ionize the xenon and accelerate the ions to a high speed. This ion engine setup achieved a specific impulse of 16.1 kN·s/kg (1,640 seconds), more than three times the maximum for chemical rockets. Therefore, 1 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 had a weight of 29 kg with a peak power consumption of 1,200 watts. SMART-1 is the first in the program of ESA's Small Missions for Advanced Research and Technology.