Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science - SMART-1 Goes to the Moon

Episode Date: August 11, 2003

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This is Planetary Radio. I'm Matt Kaplan. Did you hear the big news about the 2007 Mars Scout mission? We'll have that story for you right after, Emily. And then we'll spend some time with Bernard Foying of the European Space Agency learning about the SMART-1 mission to the moon. Last week we asked you what you'd name a Mars mission. Join Bruce and me at the end of the show to learn whose entry made us laugh the most. Fun and Games and Space Science on Planetary Radio. Here's Emily.

Hi, I'm Emily Lakdawalla with questions and answers. We were asked, is it possible for planets to form around binary stars? Science fiction movies set on other worlds often show skies with two stars, indicating that the world is orbiting a binary star system. These star systems are very common. A survey of stars close to the Sun reveals that half are actually binary star systems. In fact, the second closest star to Earth, Alpha Centauri, is actually a pair of Sun-like stars orbiting each other at an average distance of 23 astronomical units, roughly the same as the distance between our Sun and the planet Uranus.

But is it really possible for planets to form in such a binary star system? Stay tuned to Planetary Radio featured all four of the finalists for the 2007 Mars Scout mission. Well, NASA made its choice, and the happy winners were the members of the Phoenix Lander team. Peter H. Smith of the University of Arizona is the project scientist for Phoenix. Here's a bit of our conversation with him two weeks ago. We put together a scout mission using the O-1 Lander, which has been in storage ever since it was canceled, and many of the instruments from Polar Lander and the O-1 Lander to make a new mission, and we called it Phoenix because it's reborn out of the canceled missions of the past.

And in this, there are some significant cost savings to be found, I believe. Huge cost savings. The spacecraft is essentially built. We have a few modifications we need to make, but we go straight into testing upon selection. Can you talk a little bit about the site that you proposed for a landing? I mean, it really is in keeping with this NASA mantra, follow the water. We take that mantra literally. We're following the water that was found by the Odyssey gamma-ray spectrometer, and they have actually mapped the water in the northern plains,

which is the area we're most interested in because of the high surface pressures. And we now know where the sweet spot is, and we can land on the northern plains of Mars and be very confident that underneath us is a water, ice-rich soil. So all of our experiments are based on understanding the properties of the ice-rich soil. It's hard to believe Peter could have been much more excited than he was when NASA called last December to tell him Phoenix was a finalist. Well, I was expecting the phone call, but I didn't expect it at 6.30 in the morning. I was in a hotel attending the annual meeting of the Geophysical Union,

and it was such a thrill. In fact, I was on the phone with someone else at the time I got the call. I had to hang up on that person. We were doing a little bit of shouting and dancing around, and, of course, at that time of the morning I wasn't wearing a lot of clothes. So it was very exciting. around. And of course, at that time of the morning, I wasn't wearing a lot of clothes. It was very exciting. Our congratulations to the entire Phoenix team and best wishes for a great mission to Mars in 2007. And we hope there will somehow be a future for the other three finalists. Each proposed a unique and exciting journey of discovery to the red planet. I'll be back with Bernard Foying of the European Space Agency right after this.

This is Buzz Aldrin. When I walked on the moon, I knew it was just the beginning of humankind's great adventure in the solar system. That's why I'm a member of the Planetary Society, the world's largest space interest group. The Planetary Society is helping to explore Mars. We're tracking near-Earth asteroids and comets. We sponsor the search for life on other worlds, and we're building the first-ever solar sail.

You can learn about these adventures and exciting new discoveries from space exploration in the Planetary Report. The Planetary Report is the Society's full-color magazine. It's just one of many member benefits. You can learn more by calling 1-877-PLANETS. That's toll-free, 1-877-752-6387.

And you can catch up on space exploration news and developments at our exciting and informative website, planetarysociety.org. The Planetary Society, exploring new worlds. PlanetarySociety.org. The Planetary Society. Exploring new worlds. Europe is going to the moon. It won't be a fast trip, but an ion engine will make getting there at least half the fun. Dr. Bernard Foying is project scientist for the European Space Agency's Smart One mission. He joins us on the phone, not from his home in the Netherlands, but from the NASA Ames Research Center in California.

Welcome to Planetary Radio, Dr. Foy. Okay, welcome to the moon. Thank you. What brings you, first of all, to the United States? Yes, I have some research collaboration with colleagues. We have common interest in looking for organics in space. As well, we have some programs on comparative planetology, which is a study of the differences and similarities between planets,

in particular Earth-like planets and moons. I take it, though, that soon you will be returning to Europe to prepare for the launch of SMART1, which is coming up very soon. Yes, we have been preparing for this launch. We have started the SMART1 mission development only three years ago, and now we are planning to launch it on the 28th of August. That's a very quick development cycle. Yes, that's part of a series of the SMART missions,

small missions for advanced research and technology, which we have developed in the ESA Space Science Program. We want to try to do cheaper, faster, smarter, and better missions, in particular missions that can prepare the technology for future strategic missions, which we call the cornerstone missions in the ESA Space Science Program. So small missions for advanced research in technology, and SMART-1 is just the first in this new series. SMART-1 is the first in this series. In particular, SMART-1 was approved to test, for the first time in Europe,

the technology of ion propulsion using solar electric propulsion as a way to navigate into deep space. As well, we want to demonstrate new technology of instruments, in particular, miniaturization of instruments. As well, we try to have new ways of doing business. We say the faster, smarter, better. Yes, yes. Sometimes harder as well. Yes.

But yes, on quite a short time schedule. But also, we try to offer to the scientists an opportunity to do science on this fascinating body, which is the Moon, but also to do science which can prepare them for future missions. In particular, Smart One will be preparing for the cornerstone mission, which we call Baby Colombo. It's a mission to go to Mercury with an orbiter and with a lander, as well as a mission to go to the neighborhood of the sun, which is called Solar Orbiter.

The ion propulsion will have also other applications, we believe, in the commercial area, as well as other deep space missions towards Mars. Speaking of deep space, the comparison, at least in my mind, to the United States or NASA Deep Space One mission seems to be appropriate. Yeah, Deep Space One was also a mission which was using electric propulsion as a primary mean to navigate in the solar system, which we are a bit different in this. First, it's a European demonstration, but as well, we are starting

from an orbit which is very near the Earth. It's a geostationary transfer orbit, which is an orbit where we hitchhike on another spacecraft to make use of the Ariane 5 launcher at a quite economical cost. And from there, using solitric propulsion alone, we are intending to go into deep space. In the case of SMART-1, we will go to the moon. For deep space one, there was a direct injection into interplanetary space. Electric propulsion was used to optimize navigation, interplanetary navigation from asteroid to comet Boise, for instance.

So, as you said, you will be, I believe it's called an auxiliary payload on that Ariane 5 booster, and it is the ion engine by itself that will eventually, then very gradually, take SMART-1 into the gravity well of the moon. Yes, it will take 15 months to go from this near-Earth orbit until the moon. So we will use constantly the ion engine. In fact, we will thrust it. It will exert a thrust which is about 7 grams. The gentle blow on your hand, if you would exert it during 15 months,

it would have enough acceleration to bring you to the moon. That's what we are going to do with the smart one? So it will take 15 months, and we will have run some 400 million kilometers on our way to the moon. Oh, my goodness. To something... It's quite a long way. It's like the tortoise way to go to the moon. Slow but sure.

Slow but sure. Very much like the tortoise. That's right. In fact, the big advantage of ion propulsion is that the thrust per unit of mass that you eject in space is ten times better than chemical propulsion. So this way, you can reduce the amount of fuel you will need to go into deep space and then put more payload, more instrument, and then do more science. Now, the other name for the ion engine is a solar electric engine, which is also quite

appropriate. Yeah, that's right. We are quite environment-friendly. We just use solar power to produce the energy to then accelerate the charges. We are using xenon particles. We accelerate them out at very high speed. Xenon particles, we accelerate them out at very high speed. And also on our way to the moon, we'll use some special surfing on the gravity attraction of the moon to minimize the consumption of the xenon fuel.

Did you say surfing? Yeah. We will try to synchronize the orbit of a smart one so that we are at the apogee, far from the Earth, at the moment when the moon is passing by. And then we get an extra pull from the moon at a well-selected moment. This way we save fuel to get even more instruments on board. This kind of trajectory is fairly unique for a spacecraft, isn't it?

Yes. So it's also a new way of designing a trajectory to planetary bodies. So we try to be a bit smarter for that. And it requires a constant driving of this vehicle. So not only will we try to demonstrate this propulsion engine, but we will also try to learn how to drive this vehicle constantly with the orientation of the stress, but also selecting the best trajectory to minimize fuel and to secure that we are captured to the moon. And then after capture by the moon, we will use again the ion proportions to spiral down in order to reach an orbit which will be with a perilune of 300 kilometers and an apolune of 10,000 kilometers,

so that we will be doing some scientific mapping of the moon. We're talking with Dr. Bernard Foying, who is the chief scientist for the Space Science Department of the European Space Agency, but primarily about his job as the project scientist on the SMART-1 spacecraft, which will be launching very soon, and testing out these new technologies, including the ion engine. Dr. Foyn, you mentioned that once Smart One reaches the moon, it will also be testing new technology in its science payload. You mentioned miniaturization, and I was amazed to see that the entire science payload is about 15 kilograms.

That's right. So now it's 19 kilograms with some maturation on the development of the instrument. And in part, we have seven hardware instruments that will conduct 10 investigations. For instance, there will be an X-ray spectrometer about the size of a toaster, 5 kg weight, which will make the first global X-ray map of the Moon in order to determine the global composition of the Moon. This will help us to understand better the fideation between the Earth and the Moon and also the evolution of the Moon itself. We have also a very miniaturized infrared spectrometer, which is only 2 kg and about 10 times lighter than the previous generation of infrared spectrometer.

It will be also the first infrared spectrometer around the moon. And with this, we can measure the reflected light absorbed by the minerals on the surface of the moon in order to map those main minerals which are basalt or volcanic origin or also sometimes of impact origin. Also we have a very miniaturized camera called AMI and this camera has a sensor unit and a processing unit which is just the size of an eye. It will allow to get high-resolution images in color, in particular to study the topography of the moon, or also to make very deep exposures of the polar region of the moon, in particular those areas in the bottom of some of these polar craters where we believe there could be water ice. Just amazing. All in 19 kilograms.

What will the expected lifetime of SMART-1 be in orbit around the moon? Yes. In orbit around the moon, we have a nominal scientific mission of six months, which could be extended to one year. But we are also going to use a cruise to perform science and also technology demonstration. We have also some other technology experiments, in particular a deep space microwave communication experiment which is preparing future deep space communication system

in a high frequency microwave. We will also make some tests by shooting a laser from Earth onto SmartOne to test future optical communication systems. We have a telescope in Tenerife, in the Canarias, equipped with a laser. We'll shoot at the SmartOne camera. We try to detect and study the ability for the future of optical laser communication. You've really crowded a lot onto this little spacecraft. Yes, that was a challenge, a challenge on the investigators,

also a challenge on the design of the spacecraft. And it was also a kind of risk which we were taking in the development. But this is allowed by this type of program, where we take some risk to demonstrate the technology so that at the end we lower the risk for more ambitious scientific missions and more costly missions.

You mentioned that cornerstone mission to Mercury. All of this gives me the idea that ESA, the European Space Agency, is taking on rather ambitious plans for planetary exploration. Let's say we have done the Johto flyby of a comet, but this year is a kind of golden year for planetary exploration at ESA.

We have launched on the 2nd of June our mission Mars Express to Mars, which is now on its way to deliver an orbiter on Mars as well as a lander. The Beagle 2 lander, of course, which we'll be following. Yes, the Beagle 2 lander, which is a European lander, which is led by the British consortium, and which will look at possible signature of condition for life as well as eventually life on Mars. And we should say that you are a co-investigator on the Mars Express mission, which is on its way to the Red Planet right now.

Yeah, we try not only to support the community by project work, helping this mission to materialize, but also we try to keep our hands into science to better understand the needs of the community. And also, I mean, we love to study planets and to do space science and to participate to possible discoveries or also modest discoveries whenever possible. We only have a couple of minutes left in this fairly brief conversation. I wonder, with all of this activity on the part of the European Space Agency, obviously a lot of missions underway

from NASA as well, is there still a good deal of cooperation or is it more friendly competition between these two great agencies? I think it's a friendly competition and it's a good basis for collaboration as

we are trying to, in Europe, to develop an independent means to be able to talk to with our brother from the other side of the Atlantic. And in fact, in practice also we will exchange data for scientific analysis. We will also use elements on the orbiter on Mars from the U.S. side to relay some data from Mars Express. Also on Mars Express, we have a data relay system which can be used by the Mars rovers or by other future Mars missions. Space is big, even within the solar system.

Plenty of room for lots of us to explore. Yes, space is big. For the moon as well, there is a large international collaboration. After Smart One, there will be two Japanese lunar missions. Even the Chinese and the Indians are thinking about some robotic missions around the moon.

For the exploration of the near solar system, clearly there is a lot of space for coordination and also using science to prepare future exploration of the Mars and the Moon. And for the outer solar system, there is also a lot of room for collaboration and for devising a very inventive mission. Exciting times ahead. We are just about out of time. I want to give you a chance to provide the website, the web address, for the SMART-1 mission on the European Space Agency website. For the space science mission of ESA, you can go to the website sci.esa.int,

where you will get all the information concerning the space science mission, either SMART-1, SMART Dash One, or Mars Express. But you have also a menu on this website where you have the latest news on the development on mission and operations. We will post a link to that website on the Planetary Society website so that people can get there directly if they visit planetary.org, as always. Dr. Foying, we are out of time. I want to thank you very much for spending a few minutes with us on Planetary Radio,

and I hope that your trip to California and the NASA Ames Research Center up north of us is very successful. Thanks to you and the Planetary Society, and also I hope that you will be able to watch the launch of SmartOne, be able to watch the launch of a smart one as well as a arrival of Mars Express from California and also for the good use of all the Planet Society members. Absolutely, and we are looking into whether that will be possible. So we hope we'll have some good announcements about that. Again, thank you very much. Thank you. Hi, I'm Emily Lakdawalla, back with Q&A.

Can planets form in binary star systems? The answer is probably yes. Planets can exist in binary star systems in one of two places. One possibility is for the planet to form far enough away from the two stars that they act gravitationally like a single big star. In this case, the planet would have a double sun, with the two stars always rising and setting at about the same time close to each other in the sky. It's also possible for a planet to form close enough to one of the two stars that the other

star's gravitational influence on the planet is slight. In this case, the planet's sky would contain two different suns that rise and set at different times, just as our sun and moon rise at different times. One sun would probably be dimmer than the other, and there would be different brightness days and nights depending on the different rising and setting cycles of each star. For our neighbors, Alpha Centauri A and B, mathematical modeling suggests that there is a gravitational safe zone around each star that could contain planets in Earth-like or Mars-like orbits, so it's very likely that there are many planets in our galaxy with more than one sun. Got a question about the universe?

Send it to us at planetaryradio at planetary.org, and you may hear it answered by a leading space scientist or expert. Be sure to provide your name and how to pronounce it, and tell us where you're from. And now, here's Matt with more Planetary Radio. Bruce Betts is ready to join us from a remote location. It's time for What's Up. Bruce, you are filing your papers to run for governor of California? Bruce Betts is ready to join us from a remote location. It's time for What's Up. Bruce, you are filing your papers to run for governor of California?

That is true, Matt. I plan to announce my running on the Tonight Show. I'm just waiting for them to call me. Everything else is in order. Well, Bruce, tell the state of California and everyone else what's up. Well, you know, really nothing this week, Matt. No, I'm just kidding. I'm sorry I'm distracted by this whole political thing.

I'm sorry. I'll be back. Up in the sky, Mars. I know it sounds redundant, but ignore everything else. Focus on Mars in terms of planets. We'll give you something else to look at. But Mars coming up mid to late evening now, around 10 p.m. in the east, brightest thing up there except for the moon. You cannot miss it.

Orange, reddish. Please, please go out and look over the coming weeks. It's the brightest you're going to see it in 60,000 years or for the next couple hundred years. We also have a meteor shower, the Perseid meteor shower. Now, unfortunately, this year, it's right about a full moon during the meteor shower, so it's going to be a little harder to see things, but this is one of the best recurring meteor showers every year, certainly the best one during warm months. And you just go out, look up at the night sky, and look for bright objects flashing across the sky. Every once in a while, there usually

are roughly 20 to 40 meteors an hour with the Perseids near the peak, and the peak is late in the evening on August 12th, Pacific time in the United States. So go see Mars, go see the Perseids. On to this week in space history. And by the way, it was a surprisingly boring week in space history. Sure, some things, it was a surprisingly boring week in space history. Sure, some things happen, but not that much. In 1877, Asaph Hall had a good time, though. He discovered both Mars's moons, Phobos and Deimos, during that week. Let's move on to random space facts. The Great Red Spot on Jupiter is a hurricane-like storm. It is large enough that two Earths could fit across it.

The Red Spot has been around since at least the early 1600s when it was first detected shortly after the invention of the telescope. Shall we move on to trivia? Yes, let's do that. And thank you for moving along so quickly through the earlier parts of What's Up because we have probably a little bit longer than usual trivia section today, and of course it's not really a trivia contest this week. You had a challenge for our listeners last week. I did. I asked, what would you name a spacecraft going to Mars?

Of course, there are five spacecraft headed to Mars right now, two working in orbit there, which you can learn about at planetary.org slash Mars. The most humorous answer, we'll win, is what we told people. So not your standard trivia looking for something to make us laugh. How do we do, Matt? Well, you know, we get a lot fewer people when we really make them work, when they can't just, you know, look it up on Google. And so the people who did enter, we sure thank you.

We have a few selections here that we thought we would read before we actually get to the big winner. I can get us started, I guess. The first one, Bruce, is one that has to do with a friend of yours, an associate of yours. I'm not sure how thrilled you'd be with this. I think it's somebody who's a big fan of Sandy Moondust, but thinks that a Mars mission should be named MTOB, Mission to Obliterate Biff Starling, correcting a historical wrong.

I hope that wasn't Sandy that submitted that. We'll look into that. Well, that came from Dominic Turley, by the way. Then we got, let's see, we got a whole bunch from Kyle Tinsley, one of our regular people here. We're not going to read them all. One of them was Operation Enduring Mars Freedom. Strong intelligence reports indicate Saddam's hideout may be there. Better send bombs.

The Little Green Men Moving Company, corporate logo Texas to Mars in three weeks or less. The Earth Landfill Relocation Project, part one of 10 million. corporate logo texas to mars in three weeks or less the earth landfill relocation project part one of 10 million and uh this one which actually is our runner up for the week i went to mars and all i got was this lousy soil sample there you go i like it i like it but but it was not my favorite and we should say our judges were unanimous on the favorite, and you can go ahead and tell them what it was. All right, our winner this week, Corrigan's Mercury Flyer. A somewhat intellectual but very funny answer. And that came from Mike McCormick in Livingston, New Jersey.

Mike, you're our winner this week. You will be getting that Mars 3-D poster for your entry, the funniest one in the opinion of our expert judges. What would you name a Mars spacecraft? Corrigan's Mercury Flyer. Bruce, you want to explain that? Because I know half of our audience is just falling on the floor in laughter, and the other half are going, huh?

What's wrong with you people? I mean, that's what they're saying about us. That's not what we think about our viewers, I swear. Wrongway Corrigan, whose first name I don't even remember because everyone called him Wrongway, claimed he was going to go off on a flight and fly one direction, and he ended up flying the other direction, preplanned or not. Hence the reference to Corrigan's Mercury flyer going to Mars. Say you're going to Mercury, end up at Mars.

Ha, ha, ha. We liked it, Mike. We liked it a lot, no matter what anybody says. We did. And there are another three people out there laughing hysterically with us. Thank you all for those of you who did enter. We're, this week, to try to pick up entries because we feel lonely again, we're going to a more standard question, and that, although maybe it'll be a smidge of a challenge, what

is the Torrini scale? Torrini scale. And heck, I'll even give you a prize if you do make me laugh hard enough, but there is a real answer out there in the astronomical world. What is the Torrini scale? How will they enter the contest? They will go to planetary.org, follow the links to Planetary Radio, and you'll find instructions there as to how to enter our contest.

And we do want to remind folks, we haven't said this in a while, you've got to get that entry into us by Thursday at noon Pacific time. Thursday, noon Pacific time. Why? Because frequently we record these shortly after that. That is indeed true. I want to remind people also, on an unrelated note, but looking at Mars, you can go to our website, planetary.org, slash, MarsWatch2003, to look for an event in your area with the coming Mars opposition,

closest approach of Mars, which is August 27th. You can find some events, possibly in your local area, to attend, ranging from star parties to lectures. And again, I strongly encourage you, even if you're not so inspired to go to one of those things or even to our website, walk out at night and look up at Mars. Bruce, we're out of time. All righty. Well, look up in the night sky, everyone, and think about meteors and what they really

are. Thank you, and good night. It's Wrong Way Bruce Betts with What's Up each week here on Planetary Radio, a regular feature of the program. Yay, a nickname! We're out of time for today.

Please join us again next time, and again in two weeks, when our special guest will be author Ray Bradbury. Thanks for listening.