SMART-1 Ion Engine Fired Successfully

LUNAR SPACE

Smart-1's SNECMA PPS-1350 ion engine will provide the primary propulsion system for the earth-lunar transfer. Illustration by AOES Medialab

Paris (ESA) Oct 01, 2003
SMART-1's revolutionary propulsion system was successfully fired at 12:25 UT on 30 September, 2003, in orbit around the Earth. Engineers at ESOC, the European Space Agency's control centre in Darmstadt, Germany, sent a command to begin the firing test, which lasted for one hour. This was similar to a trial performed on Earth before SMART-1 was launched.

Several months ago, the ion engine, or Solar Electric Primary Propulsion (SEPP) system, had been placed in a vacuum chamber on the ground and its functions and operation were measured. Now in space and in a true vacuum, the ion engine actually worked better than in the test on ground and has nudged SMART-1 a little closer to the Moon.

This is the first time that Europe flies an electric primary propulsion in space, and also the first European use of this particular type of ion engine, called a 'Hall-effect' thruster.

The SEPP consists of a single ion engine fuelled by xenon gas and powered by solar energy. The ion engine will accelerate SMART-1 very gradually to cause the spacecraft to travel in a series of spiralling orbits - each revolution slightly further away from the Earth - towards the Moon. Once captured by the Moon's gravity, SMART-1 will move into ever-closer orbits of the Moon.

As part of one of the overall mission objectives to test this new SEPP technology, the data will now be analysed to see how much acceleration was achieved and how smoothly the spacecraft travelled. If the ion engine is performing to expectations, ESA engineers will regularly power up the SEPP to send SMART-1 on its way.

SMART-1 Status Report
29 September 2003
At about 40 hours of Mission Elapsed Time (starting from Launch), the commissioning of the SMART-1 spacecraft is proceeding nominally.

The spacecraft automatic activation went perfectly, including the opening of the solar panels and its orientation towards the Sun in Safe mode. Right thereafter, the flight control team requested the spacecraft to send data at 'high rate' so that all possible information could be received on the ground for further analysis.

Next the commissioning of the spacecraft subsystems were started. The commissioning was performed to verify that the system was working properly and to tune some parameters that needed to be adjusted to orbit conditions. A small correction was also needed in the way the software handles the so-called Single Event Upsets, generated by the radiation environment into the Random Access Memory.

Monday 29 September at 15:30 UTC the pre-commissioning of the first scientific instrument was completed: D-CIXS. The instrument PI team received and analysed calibration data and found them nominal.

The scheduled commissioning phase will be continued. The Electric Propulsion activation and commissioning will probably start as planned on Tuesday 30 September.

LUNAR SPACE

SMART-1 Leaves Earth On A Long Journey To The Moon

Paris - Sep 29, 2003
SMART-1, Europe's first science spacecraft designed to orbit the Moon, has completed the first part of its journey by achieving its initial Earth orbit after a flawless launch during the night of 27/28 September.

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