SMART1 Peers Back At Earth

The European Space Agency's (ESA's) SMART1 spacecraft snapped a photo of the Middle East and the Mediterranean Sea from over 100,000 km away (SMART stands for Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology). SMART1 is using a solar-electric ion engine with xenon fuel to power its way to the moon. Due to careful planning, the craft is getting better "mileage" than expected and may have enough fuel remaining to get even closer to the moon than originally planned, allowing SMART1 to take higher resolution photos of the lunar surface.

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