FYI,

"Europe's First Moon Mission Successful"
Associated Press
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?
tmpl=story&cid=1894&e=1&u=/ap/20041117/ap_on_sc/europe_moon_mission

: A fuel-efficient, compact spacecraft has made it into lunar orbit,
: signaling Europe's first successful mission to the moon and putting
: the inexpensive probe on course to study the lunar surface,
: officials said Tuesday.

: Almost more impressive than reaching its destination was the slow
: and steady way the SMART-1 craft puttered its way there — flying
: 13 months in ever expanding circles around the earth using a
: cutting-edge ion propulsion system.

: The spacecraft used only 130 pounds of the 181 pounds of xenon fuel
: it had aboard, according to European Space Agency spokesman Franco
: Bonacina in Paris. That translates to more than 5 million miles per
: gallon.

: The fuel consumption was less than expected, and the success of the
: mission has raised hopes that the technology can be used to send
: other craft far deeper into space, where the chemical propulsion
: systems that power conventional rockets would be too expensive or
: unworkable.

: By mid-January the dishwasher-sized spacecraft will be in an
: elliptical orbit that will take it within 185 miles of the moon's
: south pole and 1,850 miles from the north pole, Bonacina said.

: The ESA is hoping to use state-of-the-art equipment to take images
: of the surface from different angles and X-ray and infrared
: technology to allow scientists to draw up new three-dimensional
: models of the moon's surface.

: SMART-1 will also be looking at the darker parts of the moon's
: south pole for the first time, and searching dark craters for signs
: of water, ESA said.

: Over the last 13 months, the 809-pound probe has been edging its
: way toward the moon in a mission controlled from the ESA's
: operations center in Darmstadt. It measures 3.3 feet on each side,
: and solar panels, which help provide ion — or solar-electric
: — propulsion, spread 46 feet.

: Unlike conventional rockets, no fuel is "burned"; instead, the
: solar panels provide electricity to charge the xenon gas atoms,
: which accelerate away from the spacecraft at high speed and produce
: forward thrust.

: The mission marks the second time that ion propulsion has been used
: as a primary propulsion system. The first was the Deep Space 1
: probe launched by NASA (news - web sites) in 1998.

: SMART-1, short for "Small Missions for Advanced Research and
: Technology," was developed for ESA by the Swedish Space Corporation
: with contributions from some 30 contractors in Europe and the
: United States.

: The total cost for the mission is $142.3 million, about a fifth of
: what is required for a typical major space mission.

Mark Reiff