Ion-Engine Spacecraft On Moon Mission

anactofgod writes "The Times On-line and space.com reports that the European Space Agencies Smart-1 probe has cleared the Lagrangian point between the Earth and its moon and is due to enter lunar orbit on Nov 15th. Smart-1's mission is to make observations related to the moon's formation and composition. What's cool about this mission, other than this is the first European mission to Earth's moon, is that the probe is using solar powered ion engine thrusters. Ion engines are an order of magnitude more efficient than chemical engines. NASA flew the first ion-powered spacecraft, Deep Space 1, in 1998. Smart-1 is the second spacecraft to use the technology, and was designed as a testbed for future ESA missions. The ESA is scheduled to fly the ion-powered BepiColombo on a mission to Mercury in 2009."

Comments

Re:Nuclear rockets

[anactofgod]

It's not technically complex. It's politically complex.

The problem all nuclear powered designs have is the fact that they are nuclear powered. It's hard to convince J. Q. Public that it's okay to launch any kind of nuclear reactor design into space, especially when said material is being launched via highly combustible chemical rockets. No one would want to be in charge of the cost-benefit of making the design and launch decisions the first time a launch like that goes bad.