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How SMART-1 has made European space exploration smarter   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.  SMART-1 first orbits the Earth in ever-increasing ellipses. When it reaches the Moon, its orbit is altered by the Moon's gravitational field. It uses a number of these lunar 'gravity assist' manoeuvres to position itself for entering orbit around the Moon.  This image, taken by the advanced Moon Imaging Experiment (AMIE) on board ESA’s SMART-1 spacecraft, shows crater Lomonosov on the Moon’s far side. AMIE obtained the image on 30 January 2006 from a distance of about 2100 kilometres from the surface, with a ground resolution of 190 metres per pixel. The imaged area is centred at a latitude of 27.8º North and a longitude of 98.6º East.
Crater Lomonosov is a nice example for a large crater (92 kilometres in diameter) which was filled by lava after the impact, thus exhibiting a flat floor. The terraced walls indicate 'slumping', that is sliding of the rocks downwards due to gravity after the end of the impact. The small craters inside Lomonosov are the result of impacts into this lava floor which happened after the formation of Lomonosov. Release date: 28 September 2007 |