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EU Craft Successfully Hits The Moon

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the but-you-said-to-turn-left! dept.

An anonymous reader writes "SMART-1 has hit the Moon , just as planned and — even better — the impact threw out a bright infrared that was seen by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in Hawaii. There's an animation of the images grabbed by the telescope. Scientists now hope to analyse the chemistry of the rock ejected by the crash. If only you could dump old cars in such a useful way."

6 of 134 comments (clear)

  1. Ion drive by Adelbert · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This can only be seen as great news for the ion drive. SMART-1 spiralled around the Moon exactly as planned, and was targetted at the Sea of Excellence with utmost precision. Perhaps we'll be seeing more probes with tiny amounts of fuel in the near future...?

  2. Ion-propulsion by Iron+(III)+Chloride · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The dust is certainly interesting to study, but I should say the ion propulsion engine on board is also a very interesting development. Maybe further development/use of this engine will lead to faster/more frequent/lower-cost space missions than now. Good thing NASA is slating ion propulsion for future unmanned missions ... it would be interesting if Orion (or whatever that thing is called) can use ion propulsion once it clears Earth's gravitational force.

    --
    Cogito, ergo sum, fosho!
  3. Re:How does one unsuccessfully hit the moon? by Zo0ok · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Attach a stone in the end of string. Hold the string and make the stone cirkle around your hand. Now try to make the stone hit your hand. Very easy, right?

  4. Re:So.... by EvilMonkeySlayer · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Strangely enough other spacecraft have missed before.

  5. not so new by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Watch me being confused: "new" technology (ion engine) was flown to space numerous times in the past:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hall_effect_thruster

  6. Re:Mr. Show by Andrew+Kismet · · Score: 5, Interesting

    You notice it's always "WE landed on the moon", but "the government" is fucking up things? "OUR team scored! Hooray!" at the start of the match, but "I can't believe THEY lost" at the end...?

    Just an interesting observation. I call it "inclusive gain" and "exclusive loss".