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Geology of Shackleton Crater and the south pole of the Moon

Josset, Jean-Luc; Spudis, Paul D.; Bussey, Ben +2 more

Using new SMART-1 AMIE images and Arecibo and Goldstone high resolution radar images of the Moon, we investigate the geological relations of the south pole, including the 20 km-diameter crater Shackleton. The south pole is located inside the topographic rim of the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin, the largest and oldest impact crater on the Moon and …

SMART-OLEV—An orbital life extension vehicle for servicing commercial spacecrafts in GEO

Kaiser, Clemens; Sjöberg, Fredrik; Delcura, Juan Manuel +1 more

Orbital Satellite Services Limited (OSSL) is a satellite servicing company that is developing an orbit life extension vehicle (OLEV) to extend the operational lifetime of geostationary satellites. The industrial consortium of SSC (Sweden), Kayser-Threde (Germany) and Sener (Spain) is in charge to develop and industrialize the space and ground segm…

Lunar degree 2 potential Love number determination from satellite tracking data

Matsumoto, K.; Goossens, S.

The lunar potential Love number k ₂ has been determined using available satellite tracking data coming from the Lunar Orbiters I-V, the Apollo 15 and 16 subsatellites, Clementine and Lunar Prospector. Some SMART-1 spacecraft tracking data are also included. A previous determination using spacecraft data reported k ₂ = 0.026 +…

VLBI for better gravimetry in SELENE

Noda, H.; Tamura, Y.; Tsuruta, S. +17 more

The Japanese lunar explorer SELENE (SElenological and Engineering Explorer), to be launched in 2007, will for the first time utilize VLBI observations in lunar gravimetry investigations. This will particularly improve the accuracy to which the low degree gravitational harmonics and the gravity field near the limb can be measured, and when combined…

The in-flight performance of the X-ray Solar Monitor (XSM) on-board SMART-1

Andersson, H.; Alha, L.; Huovelin, J. +4 more

The operation, performance, and in-flight calibrations of the X-ray Solar Monitor (XSM) on-board ESA's SMART-1 mission to the Moon are presented. The basic method of deriving the response and effective area of the XSM is described. The evolution of the energy resolution as a function of time is studied, and sample data of high quality broadband so…

SMART-1 highlights and relevant studies on early bombardment and geological processes on rocky planets

Grande, M.; Koschny, D.; Mall, U. +16 more

We present results from SMART-1 science and technology payload, in the context of the Nobel symposium on 'Physics of Planetary Systems'. SMART-1 is Europe' first lunar mission (Foing et al 2000 LPSC XXXI Abstract #1677 (CDROM); Foing et al 2001 Earth, Moon Planets 85 86 523 31 Marini et al 2002 Adv. Space Res. 30 1895 900 Racca et al 2001 Earth Mo…

Flying SMART-1 to the Moon with Electric Propulsion

Milligan, D.; Gestal, D.; Camino, O.

The SMART-1 Lunar Mission was launched in September 2003, and operated from the European Space Operations Centre, in Darmstadt Germany. SMART-1's primary mission goal was to demonstrate Solar Electric Primary Propulsion by orbit raising from Geostationary Transfer Orbit to the Moon. Due to favourable thruster and power subsystem performance, and a…

Simulating the SMART1 orbiter impact on the Moon's surface

Bratov, V. A.; Morozov, N. F.; Petrov, Yu. V.