Europe's first mission to the Moon, the unmanned exploratory probe SMART-1, has been safely placed in lunar orbit after a voyage of more than 13 months, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced on Tuesday. SMART-1, a tiny testbed of revolutionary technology, was successfully captured by the Moon's gravity on Monday, ESA's director of science, David Southwood, said in a teleconference from mission control in Darmstadt, western Germany.
"Our small genius is... at the Moon," a delighted Southwood declared.
The probe achieved lunar orbit at 1753 GMT on Monday, and on Tuesday was looping the Moon at a height of 5,000-6000 kilometres (3,000-3,500 miles), SMART-1 Project Manager Giuseppe Racca said.
SMART-1 will gently spiral closer to the lunar surface, eventually stabilising in an egg-shaped polar orbit that will vary from 300 kilometres (187 miles) at the South Pole to 3,000 kilometres (1,870 miles) at the North Pole.
The 370-kilo (814-pound) probe has been using a slow but revolutionary form of propulsion, taking it in ever-widening circles around the Earth and using terrestrial gravity as a slingshot, to get to the Moon.
It is powered by an ion engine, which converts solar power into electricity that then charges atoms of the heavy gas xenon.
These charged atoms, known as ions, are then disgorged from the back of the probe to give it thrust.
The motor is initially slow - launched on September 27, 2003, SMART-1 took more than 13 months to make a trip achieved in three days by the chemical rockets of the Apollo era - but speed gradually builds up in the frictionless environment of space, making ion power ideal for trips into the depths of the Solar System.