SMART-1 has crashed onto the lunar surface at around 13h 42m 21.759s GMT+8. The impact coordinates is 34.4S, 46.2W on the edge of Lacus Excellentiae.
Left: The bright point in the picture is the impact of SMART-1 on the Moon. Credit to CFHT as known as Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope
What’s wrong with it and forced it to crash? It was running low on fuel. It ran on a low-thrust engine powered xenon ions. Its main job was to test an European made ions engine. It is so successful that it just used 60 liters xenon ions to travel over 100 Millions km from Earth to Moon in a spiral way. It’s then captured by the lunar gravity at a distance of 60 000km.
It took over thousands of high resolution pictures and made mineral maps of the lunar terrains. One of its most important discoveries was a “Peak of Eternal Light,” a mountaintop near the Moon’s north pole in constant, year-round sunlight. Peaks of Eternal Light are prime real estate for solar-powered Moon bases. Quoted from SpaceWeather.com
The impact site of SMART-1 is Lacus Excellentiae, the lake of Excellence, an ancient, 100-mile wide crater in the Moon’s southern hemisphere. Below is the coordinates of impact site.
The proverb “Man proposes, God disposes” is right. The sky is cloudy again.
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