Luca Stagnaro

SMART-1 mission description and development status

Abstract SMART-1 is the first of the Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology of the ESA Horizons 2000 scientific programme. The SMART-1 mission is dedicated to testing of new technologies for future cornerstone missions, using Solar-Electric Primary Propulsion (SEPP) in Deep Space. The chosen mission planetary target is the Moon. The target orbit will be polar with the pericentre close to the South-Pole. The pericentre altitude lies between 300 and 2000 km , while the apocentre will extend to about 10,000 km . During the cruise phase, before reaching the Moon, the spacecraft thrusting profile allows extended periods for cruise science. The SMART-1 spacecraft will be launched in the spring of 2003 as an auxiliary passenger on an Ariane 5 and placed into a Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO). The expected launch mass is about 370 kg , including 19 kg of payload. The selected type of SEPP is a Hall-effect thruster called PPS-1350. The thruster is used to spiral out of the GTO and for all orbit maneuvers including lunar capture and descent. The trajectory has been optimised by inserting coast arcs and the presence of the Moons gravitational field is exploited in multiple weak gravity assists. The Development Phase started in October 1999 and is expected to be concluded by a Flight Acceptance Review in January 2003. The short development time for this high technology spacecraft requires a concerted effort by industry, science institutes and ESA centres. This paper describes the mission and the project development status both from a technical and programmatic standpoint.

The Euclid mission design

Euclid is a space-based optical/near-infrared survey mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) to investigate the nature of dark energy, dark matter and gravity by observing the geometry of the Universe and on the formation of structures over cosmological timescales. Euclid will use two probes of the signature of dark matter and energy: Weak gravitational Lensing, which requires the measurement of the shape and photometric redshifts of distant galaxies, and Galaxy Clustering, based on the measurement of the 3-dimensional distribution of galaxies through their spectroscopic redshifts. The mission is scheduled for launch in 2020 and is designed for 6 years of nominal survey operations. The Euclid Spacecraft is composed of a Service Module and a Payload Module. The Service Module comprises all the conventional spacecraft subsystems, the instruments warm electronics units, the sun shield and the solar arrays. In particular the Service Module provides the extremely challenging pointing accuracy required by the scientific objectives. The Payload Module consists of a 1.2 m three-mirror Korsch type telescope and of two instruments, the visible imager and the near-infrared spectro-photometer, both covering a large common field-of-view enabling to survey more than 35% of the entire sky. All sensor data are downlinked using K-band transmission and processed by a dedicated ground segment for science data processing. The Euclid data and catalogues will be made available to the public at the ESA Science Data Centre.

Euclid mission status

In June 2012, Euclid, ESAs Cosmology mission was approved for implementation. Afterwards the industrial contracts were signed for the payload module and the spacecraft prime, and the mission requirements consolidated. We present the status of the mission in the light of the design solutions adopted by the contractors. The performances of the spacecraft in its operation, the telescope assembly, the scientific instruments as well as the data-processing have been carefully budgeted to meet the demanding scientific requirements. We give an overview of the system and where necessary the key items for the interfaces between the subsystems.

SMART-1 after lunar capture: First results and perspectives

SMART-1 is a technology demonstration mission for deep space solar electrical propulsion and technologies for the future. SMART-1 is Europe’s first lunar mission and will contribute to developing an international program of lunar exploration. The spacecraft was launched on 27th September 2003, as an auxiliary passenger to GTO on Ariane 5, to reach the Moon after a 15-month cruise, with lunar capture on 15th November 2004, just a week before the International Lunar Conference in Udaipur. SMART-1 carries seven experiments, including three remote sensing instruments used during the mission’s nominal six months and one year extension in lunar science orbit. These instruments will contribute to key planetary scientific questions, related to theories of lunar origin and evolution, the global and local crustal composition, the search for cold traps at the lunar poles and the mapping of potential lunar resources