Smart-1 : Friendly Hit At Lunar Surface

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“RARELY has a waste-disposal programme been so closely scrutinised or so keenly awaited,” says The Times under the heading ‘One Great Lump for Mankind’.

“As a small piece of space-junk was relegated to the great dustbin in the sky yesterday, observatories swivelled their powerful lenses to the heavens and thousands of observers squinted through telescopes to witness its dramatic dispatch.

“The operation by the European Space Agency (ESA) to scrap Smart-1, an unmanned probe that had completed a 62 million-mile odyssey on just 60 litres (13 gallons) of fuel, ended in spectacular style as it slammed into the Moon at 4,500mph (7,242km/h), blasting its own grave in the rock.

“It was the first time that Europe had made its mark on the Moon. Coming 37 years after America’s first manned lunar landing, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin tripped across the Sea of Tranquillity, ESA’s smack-down in the Lake of Excellence, scattering debris for 30 miles and gouging a new crater, might have seemed crude by comparison.

“But it marked a successful end to a three-year mission that has not only gathered new information on the Moon’s chemical and geographical make-up, but also tested new technology that will prove valuable to future expeditions.

“Weighing 367kg (809lb) and costing just £75 million — a drop in the ocean for a space mission — Smart-1 was launched in September 2003 and took 14 months to reach the Moon.”