Europe’s SMART-1 lunar probe remains in good shape, slowly cruising toward the Moon. Lunar capture of the European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft is due on November 17th.

ESA’s Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology (SMART-1) was launched as an Ariane-5 auxiliary payload on September 27, 2003.

Meanwhile, ESA released last month the first picture of Earth taken by SMART-1.

The image shows from top left, Scandinavia, Denmark, United Kingdom and clear west and northern France. Southern France and Spain are at the centre under cloud cover. North Africa is bottom right. The image was taken by the Advanced Moon Micro-Imager Experiment (AMIE) camera. This imaging system has been developed by Space-X, space exploration, in Neuchatel, Switzerland.

Once in orbit around the Moon, AMIE will survey the lunar terrain using visible and near-infrared light, providing clues about its chemical composition and geological history.

“This picture is a great view of Earth seen as a planet,” said ESA Project Scientist Bernard Foing. “Further synoptic images of Earth obtained during the cruise phase will be used to compare the signature of geophysical processes with what we shall measure on the Moon.”

-- Leonard David

Image Credit: ESA