The science goals of ESA's SMART-1 mission to the moon

SMART-1 will be Europe's first lunar mission and represents an important step forwards in developing an international program of lunar exploration. The spacecraft will be ready for launch in late 2002, and is designed to test new technologies for use on future ESA cornerstone missions. In this respect, SMART-1 will also play a vital role in developing cutting edge technologies that could be a major part of the future of lunar and planetary science. SMART-1 will carry three remote sensing instruments that will be used during the mission's nominal six months in lunar orbit. These instruments will return data that will be relevant to a broad range of lunar studies, from bulk crustal composition and theories of lunar origin/evolution to the search for cold traps at the lunar poles and the mapping of potential lunar resources. With a perilune near the lunar south pole, the South Pole-Aitken Basin (SPA) is a prime target for studies using the SMART-1 suite of instruments.