An electric-powered spacecraft that will study the moon will be launched by an Ariane 5 rocket at the end of 2002, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced.
The 772-pound (350-kilogram) spacecraft, called SMART 1, will be powered by solar electric propulsion, and will be equipped with X-ray and infrared spectrometers to study the moon.
The primary goal of the mission is to test experimental technologies that would be useful in deep-space missions.
The spacecraft will carry seven instruments. Three will be used to inspect the surface of the moon: a compact X-ray spectrometer, an Infrared spectrometer, and a device that can create images from the spectrometers ' data.
The ESA hopes that those devices will help answer key questions about the origin of the Earth-moon system, lunar volcanic activity and lunar erosion.
Other instruments will monitor the craft's electric propulsion.
Propulsion with electricity is a powerful technique that could be used to send spacecraft into the far reaches of the solar system.
"Compared with conventional chemical systems, electric propulsion expends very little mass to accelerate a spacecraft. But it ejects the propellant plasma up to 10 times faster than a classical engine and so is 10 times more efficient," said Giuseppe Racca, project manager for SMART 1, in a statement.
According to the ESA, SMART 1 will employ a stationary plasma thruster, using xenon gas a propellant. The gas will be propelled at high speed by electric solar power. Under Newton's laws, that reaction will produce an equal and opposite reaction, moving the craft forward.
The ESA approved the SMART 1 mission on Thursday, and will now begin to develop the craft. Swedish Space Corporation is the prime contractor, and will be supported by European subcontractors.
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