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SMART-1 uses new imaging technique in lunar orbit

23 December 2005

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The AMIE camera on board SMART-1 has three fixed-mounted filters which see the Moon in different colour bands. The figure shows four consecutive images taken by AMIE from left to right. The fixed filters are indicated by coloured frames. The images, taken only a few seconds apart, show how the surface is moving through the different filters.

Credits: AMIE Team

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remote-sensing instruments on SMART-1 will scan Moon's surface

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How three remote-sensing instruments on SMART-1 are scanning the Moon's surface during one pass. Repeated passes will gradually fill in the picture.

SMART-1 is the first of ESA’s Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology. It headed for the Moon using solar-electric propulsion and carrying a battery of miniaturised instruments.

As well as testing new technology, SMART-1 is making the first comprehensive inventory of key chemical elements in the lunar surface. It is also investigating the theory that the Moon was formed following the violent collision of a smaller planet with Earth, four and a half thousand million years ago.

Credits: ESA - AOES Medialab

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SMART-1

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