ESA Lunar Probe

Hi,
read this in the Calgary Herald,November 17,2004,
page A-14;a fuel efficient compact spacecraft has made
it into Lunar Orbit.Flying for 13 months in ever
expanding circles around the Earth using Ion Propul-
sion system,SMART-1 used only 60 kilograms of the 82
kilograms of Xenon fuel it had aboard said European
Space Agency spokesman Franco Bonacina in Paris.That
translates to more than 2 million kilometers a liter.
Launched into Earth orbit from French Guiana on Sept.
27,2003,atop a conventional booster rocket,the probe
has made it to within 5,000 kilometers of the Moon and
will begin spinning closer as it orbits.By mid January
the dish-washer sized spacecraft will be within 300
kilometers of the Lunar south-pole and north-pole.
SMART-1 will use X-ray and Infrared technology to make
new 3-dimensional models of the surface and searching
dark craters for water.The 367 kilogram probe is cont-
rolled at ESA Operations Centre in Darmstadt,Germany.
Unlike conventional rockets,no fuel is burned,solar
panels provide electricity to charge the Xenon gas
atoms which accelerate away from the spacecraft at
high speed to produce forward thrust.
I'll keep my fingers crossed-hope they find water/ice
on the Moon. Cordially,John Hadden
jfhadden@...