Moon mission crash watched from Earth

James Randerson

At 6.42 am yesterday, the moon acquired a new piece of space junk when the dishwasher-size Smart-1 probe slammed into its surface at 2km a second at a site on the moon’s earthward side called the Lake of Excellence.

The impact was visible to professional and amateur observers from South Africa to the US, but not from Europe.

Astronomers at the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, reported seeing a momentary bright infrared flash as the probe hit the surface.

“More or less everything happened as planned,” said spacecraft operations manager Octavia Camino-Ramos.

Smart (Small Mission for Advanced Research and Technology)-1 is Europe’s first foray to the moon.

The 366kg (750lb) probe has been observing the moon’s surface since March 2005 and testing new spaceship technology, but mission controllers at the European Space Agency opted for a spectacular conclusion.

The probe would have hit the moon’s surface anyway, but scientists adjusted its trajectory so that the crash could be watched from Earth. The final adjustments were made last Friday.

The crash will have gouged a 10-metre wide scar and scattered debris over about 30 square miles. Data on the plume of rock thrown up should tell scientists about the composition of the lunar surface.

Scientists hope to use that data to investigate the moon’s formation. The most widely accepted theory is an impact between a Mars-size asteroid and the Earth about 4.5bn years ago. But the mission’s primary objective was to test its experimental ion-propulsion system.