Mission To The Moon

European probe to find how Earth's companion was formed!

By the time you read this, a European Spave Agency probe should be on its way to the moon. All being well, it will have blasted off in early September and is due to arrive at its destination in December 2004. Its hoped SMART-1 will amswer some of the biggest mysteries about the Moon: namely, where it came from and whether there is water on it. Our knowledge of the Moon is still surprisingly incomplete We still want to know how the Earth-Moon system formed and evolved, says Project Scienist Bernard Foing from the European Space Agency.

The most popular theory is that the asteroid the size of Mars collided with the Earth 4.5 billion years ago, throwing out vapourised debris into space. This later condensed to form our satelite. To search for traces of this impact, SMART-1 carries an x-ray detector for identifying key elements on the surface. If the collision theory is correct, the Moon should contain a lesser proportion of iron, compared to magnesium or aluminium, than the Earth.

While there have been several previous landings on the Moon, including six Apollo missions and three unmanned Soviet craft, the existence of water has never been confirmed. SMART-1 will not land but it will look for water, as ice, at the bottom of small craters at the Moons poles. Here hidden from the Sun, the temperatures never rises above -170C. SMART-1 aims to detect the ice from its infrared signature, which could be tricky because the craters are not exposed to direct light. Instead its hoped that rays reflecting from nearby crater rims will provide just enough illumation.

Finding water could be key to future manned missions. In preparation for lunar planetary exploration we need to find resources and landing sites explains Foing!


*********************************************

This was in an article I read earlier on this morning, in this months Focus magazine, and found it very interesting, click on the link below for the SMART-1 site!


www.eas.int...


(for some reason the link isnt working? so if you put "www.sea.int" into search engine it should come up with the site, sorry guys!)


blackwidow's son







[Edited on 16-9-2003 by blackwidow666]

Cool. I hope it goes well and they find something interesting.

the one thing i'm really confused about here is... if it's being launched now or quite soon. why will it take till dec 2004 to get to the moon? i think we can get to mars quicker then that. unless the probe is orbiting the earth a whole lot to pick up speed. i should read up more on it i guess.

EDIT: the link should be: www.esa.int...

you had the "S" and "A" reversed in "ESA"

[Edited on 16-9-2003 by jra]

Something tells me they are not just searching for water up there.

found my answer

www.esa.int...

Thank you for that jra, I am trying to look after my mothers interest here but have alot on my mind with her still in hospital.

thanx again for picking that up



blackwidow's son

Its being launched this september, but won't arrive to the moon until december 2004? Isn't that a little slow? I don't know what they're attempting, but if its going to take them that long to reach their destination on the moon, they must have used a slingshot to launch it.

I was a bit suprised that it was going to take that long to get there as well, strange that?

Might be stopping off somewhere on the way?



blackwidow's son

heelstone, blackwidow666: see my last post with that link. it shows what the probe will be doing to get to the moon.

Thanx jra thats helping me understand now!




blackwidow's son

Wouldnt it seem slow because it doesnt have a big engine on it like the Apollo missions did?

Just throwin' it out there.

Yeah I believe it only took the Apollo astronauts 4 days. But instead of an engine, I guess this one is like a raft floating in a magnetic river.

Hey they do want to make moon bases.

Soon we will be able to take vacations on the moon.

There may be moon babies and a kid named moonunit isn't that weird anymore.

It makes me wonder why we havent been back before now, if they ever went there in the first place and landed.

What with the technology we are suppose to have now, how do we know there isnt already a coloney living up there right now, making plans etc, you never know what NASA or others governments are really up too, do you?


blackwidow

Originally posted by blackwidow666
It makes me wonder why we havent been back before now, if they ever went there in the first place and landed.

What with the technology we are suppose to have now, how do we know there isnt already a coloney living up there right now, making plans etc, you never know what NASA or others governments are really up too, do you?


blackwidow

They lied.
We know so little of what our governments do and don't do.
And we do nothing about it.

*sigh*

Evidence they lied?

I cant see any point to putting a base on the moon; we know everything important about it already.

I think we should go back for the sake of exploration. We shouldn't just stop at the moon. We should go to Mars, we should go explore more of our galaxy, if there is anything that won't take thousands of years to get to. If we were as ambitious about space as earlier man was about exploring the earth, then where do you think we would be today? Building a base would be similar to building a space station. Instead of making multiple trips to the moon, build a place you can call "home". The universe is beautiful but unfortunately most of the world ignores it.

Originally posted by Thatoneguy
I think we should go back for the sake of exploration. We shouldn't just stop at the moon. We should go to Mars, we should go explore more of our galaxy, if there is anything that won't take thousands of years to get to. If we were as ambitious about space as earlier man was about exploring the earth, then where do you think we would be today? Building a base would be similar to building a space station. Instead of making multiple trips to the moon, build a place you can call "home". The universe is beautiful but unfortunately most of the world ignores it.

In one way I agree here, if they did go there the first time, then instead of keep going back with probes etc, why dont they build a base on the moon?

But (yes there's always a but)

You'd have to thinking about travelling time there (and back) food etc while they was there, then fuel of course going and coming back. And more importantly who would go? Thinking of people who had families etc etc, but then any astronaunts (cant spell) that do go up, must go through all that anyway. But going on a longer journey and even living anyway on another planet, well thats something else, that will probably never happen in our life times, or even our kid's kid's kid's.



blackwidow

[Edited on 20-9-2003 by blackwidow666]

the reason why we haven't gone back is cause:

a: the shuttle can only go into low orbit

b: NASA doesn't have any other vehicles to use to get to the moon

c: NASA doesn't have the budget at the moment to develop and build a better space craft. let alone build a base on the moon. (although they are starting to talk about going back to an apollo style space craft)

it's really all about the money. priorities changed for NASA too. they have been trying to get a more permanent place in space by building a space station and as we all know, that's been sucking up a lot of money.

i think it will be a little while yet till we can go to the moon and set up a place there. not until we can find a cost effective way of getting things into orbit. we'd need to have a ship that is big enough to carry people, supplies and the parts to build a place. obviously it would be done with multiple vessels, but you'd still need a fair amount of stuff there to start.

jra

Yes I would agree with you there, there's just not the money anymore is there?

The price of things go up and the wage's dont! True?

I do understand what you are saying though.


blackwidow