Slashdot Mirror
European Moon Mission Ready for Launch
merryprankster writes "Europe's first mission to the Moon is set for blast off from Kourou in French Guiana just after midnight, local time, on Sunday. SMART
1 will study the composition of lunar rock through X-ray observations. The probe uses a new solar electric propulsion system which converts solar energy its panels into motion via the expulsion of ions. Details at the ESA mission site."
Because otherwise things like this will happen. Competition is always healthy and there's no point leaving NASA with the monopoly on space travel.
What's so bad about offering another perspective toward the whole of the universe?
Turkeyphant
Sure the Ion drive is a really neat addition, but it's soooo slooooow. It's going to take them 15 MONTHS to get there! And the payload isn't really greater at all. It takes longer to get any large loads going. The US space program got people to the moon and back in what...2 weeks? It may be slightly more economical, but it just doesn't seem practical.
Hopefully they can perfect the ion drive, however through this to increase the speed and payload capacity. Then we might have something really cool... (until the anti-matter reactor comes online...)
---- Move SIG...For great justice!
Because our specific wheel is old and busted. Also we don't look outside the wheel-way of doing things. It was a good wheel for the time it was built. However, we seem to be too fixated on repairing the wheel. There is a whole industry in wheel repair, wheel protocol, wheel contracts etc..
To use your symbolism, instead of building a wheel they are building a sledge - having discovered through wheel-driven exploration Space is covered in snow and bumpy so a sledge is a good option. Yes, the wheel works and is important. But they are under no obligation to bog down thier sledge building team with wheel thinkers.
"new solar electric propulsion system which converts solar energy its panels into motion via the expulsion of ions."
Wouldnt solar powered ion engine be easier to say?
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
More players means more ways of doing things. Cooperation can be good -- but so can competition. Competition allows various new technologies and ideas to be tried. A cooperative monopoly can strangle a field.
Possibly the biggest problem with NASA is that it has stifled innovation in the field. When one organization dominates a field the way NASA does, it's difficult to get alternative ways of doing things developed. The dominant group dismisses out of hand any thing they haven't developed. They tend to drive off independently minded people. Problems go unnoticed for longer periods of time.
Many of us welcome competition for NASA -- be it private or governmental. I salute ESA for it's independence -- and for trying out ion propulsion.
"Beer is proof God loves us and wants us to be happy." -- B. Franklin
Why makes oneself reliant on NASA wheels, when one could have a home grown wheel industry with all the spinoff products that it generates.
We tried that before. The US doesn't like sharing its technology. The result is that trhe EU would get none of the fringe benefits of developing spacecraft.
While it is nice to see ION engines gain more momentum in the industry do they really have a place in short duration/distance missions?
If its passed off a as a proof of concept it would make more sense but the article doesn't imply that.
Considering the limited distance it would probably been more efficient to use an established propulsion system and get the scientific results sooner. Now, because of their choice any findings are unnecessarily delayed.
On a high note, its good to see they are not replicating the work done by the previous NASA probe - seems scienctists are much better at getting along than their governments.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
We just have to give it time. Yeah, right now, ion propulsion isn't the most efficient or fastest way of travel. But given more use, more people will be interested in perfecting it. Remember when solar panels had such low energy converstion rates? They're much better now. I could give a million other examples, but you get my point. We can't rely on the old methods of travel forever.
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
Yes, ESA is very nationalistic. It consists of many nations... Anyway, who is reinventing what wheel? Should we not test ion propulsion simply because Nasa did it before already? Did it work so badly that we should avoid it?
> Will the European nations be the first to mine the moon?
No - we've all ratified the Ottowa Convention.