Swedish probe crashes on moon

[The Sushi Bandit]

http://www.thelocal.se/article.php?ID=4769&date=20060903&PHPSESSID=9f695787

<note to mods: please dont combine with american news accounts as this is from Swedish news.>

The Swedish-developed space probe SMART-1 crashed on the moon at 7.42am on Sunday - exactly as planned.

Astronomers around the world had urged to try to observe the spectacular conclusion to the probe, which was developed by the Swedish Space Corporation in Solna at the request of the European Space Agency.

The probe has been orbiting the moon since November 2004. At 7.42 on Sunday morning Swedish time the probe collided with the moon's surface, the news agency AFP confirmed. The impact was calculated to have created a crater between three and ten metres in diameter.

[tocqueville]

1. swedish ? it's more an European project

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

even if it's true that the Swedes developed the probe, the propulsion technology is French and 11 other countries have participated, including the US.

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/Pr_16_2003_i_EN.html

beside the main project wasn't to crash on the moon (it was only a way to end the mission and get some information) but to test the ion propulsion engine, which has been a HUGE success.

Now it's possible to build a big engine on teh same model, and it will probably be the mean of propulsion to Mars.