Fly me to the moon (1st Euroweenie moon probe set for October)

ALTHOUGH many missions have been sent to our lunar neighbour, the lure of the moon remains enormous. If all goes well, in October, another attempt to prise free a few more lunar secrets will launch from French Guiana. Scientists from the European Space Agency (ESA) are looking for clues that may shed light on the moon's origins, and also search for hard evidence of water-ice in craters near the poles.

The tiny, 370kg (816lb), probe known as SMART-1 will hitch a ride into space with two larger commercial payloads. And although the mission is relatively cheap at euro100m ($111m), it will carry out one of the most comprehensive “global” explorations of the moon done so far.

After launch, SMART-1 will get its oomph using solar power to drive a novel ion engine. This expels xenon ions in a propulsive jet. Although this cannot match the whoosh of a chemical rocket (the thrust the ion drive generates is equivalent to the weight of a postcard), it can go on pushing gently for months.

SMART-1 is a formidable piece of design. It is packed with scientific instruments such as a miniaturised camera, an infra-red spectrometer and sensors to measure solar wind and other electrical currents. But for those who believe that the moon was formed from the debris of a monstrous collision between the Earth and a smaller planet, the X-ray spectrometer is probably the most important instrument on board.

This will map for the first time iron, magnesium, aluminium and silicon over the moon's entire surface. If the ratio of magnesium and iron on the moon conforms with scientists' predictions it will provide evidence that the moon really is a chip off the old block.

ESA also hopes to use the infra-red spectrometer to look at the bottom of craters in the polar regions, seeking out the infra-red signature of water-ice. It will peer into craters that are usually in shadow. Because the rims of these craters catch rays of light from the sun, this may provide sufficient illumination for the spectrometer to detect frozen water.

If the mission succeeds—the probe should arrive by January 2005—ESA hopes to use similar ion engines on farther-ranging space missions, such as BepiColombo, its mission to Mercury in 2011. And if frozen water were found in lunar craters, that would indeed be icing on the cake.

Ooops! If you are an American you have a very short memory. Remember Dr. Wernher von Braun?

http://history.nasa.gov/sputnik/braun.html

"Wernher von Braun (1912-1977)
Wernher von Braun (1912-1977) was one of the most important rocket developers and champions

of space exploration during the period between the 1930s and the 1970s. As a youth he became enamored with the possibilities of space exploration by reading the science fiction of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, and from the science fact writings of Hermann Oberth, whose

1923 classic study, Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen (By Rocket to Space), prompted young von Braun to master calculus and trigonometry so he could understand the physics of rocketry. From his teenage years, von Braun had held a keen interest in space flight,

becoming involved in the German rocket society, Verein fur Raumschiffarht (VfR), as early as 1929. As a means of furthering his desire to build large and capable rockets, in 1932 he went to work for the German army to develop ballistic missiles. While engaged in this work,

on 27 July 1934, von Braun received a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering. Von Braun is well known as the leader of what has been called the "rocket team," which developed the V-2 ballistic missile for the Nazis during World War II. The V-2s were manufactured at a forced labor factory called Mittelwerk. Scholars are still reassessing his role in these controversial activities.

The brainchild of von Braun's rocket team operating at a secret laboratory at Peenemünde on the Baltic coast, the V-2 rocket was the immediate antecedent of those used in space exploration programs in the United States and the Soviet Union. A liquid propellant missile

extending some 46 feet in length and weighing 27,000 pounds, the V-2 flew at speeds in excess of 3,500 miles per hour and delivered a 2,200 pound warhead to a target 500 miles away. First flown in October 1942, it was employed against targets in Europe beginning in

September 1944. By the beginning of 1945, it was obvious to von Braun that Germany would not achieve victory against the Allies, and he began planning for the postwar era.

Before the Allied capture of the V-2 rocket complex, von Braun engineered the surrender of 500 of his top rocket scientists, along with plans and test vehicles, to the Americans. For fifteen years after World War II, von Braun would work with the United States army in the development of ballistic missiles. As part of a military operation called Project Paperclip, he and his "rocket team" were scooped up from defeated Germany and sent to America where they were installed at Fort Bliss, Texas. There they worked on rockets for the United States army, launching them at White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico. In 1950

von Braun's team moved to the Redstone Arsenal near Huntsville, Alabama, where they built the Army's Jupiter ballistic missile.

In 1960, his rocket development center transferred from the army to the newly established NASA and received a mandate to build the giant Saturn rockets. Accordingly, von Braun became director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and the chief architect of the Saturn V launch vehicle, the superbooster that would propel Americans to the Moon.

Von Braun also became one of the most prominent spokesmen of space exploration in the United States during the 1950s. In 1970, NASA leadership asked von Braun to move to

Washington, DC, to head up the strategic planning effort for the agency. He left his home in Huntsville, Alabama, but in less than two years he decided to retire from NASA and to go to work for Fairchild Industries of Germantown, Maryland. He died in Alexandria, Virginia, on 16 June 1977."

http://www.esa.int/export/esaCP/index.html

Does your posting also include the United Kingdom as a (Euroweenie!) or is this just a general "lets make fun of European countries post" because certain nations didn't go along with Iraq? The UK is one of the most active of the European Space Agency (ESA) Member States in its Space Science programme.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.