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Six nations have placed lunar orbiters since 2007 — a 4× increase in 15 years.
| Attribute | 🇪🇺 SMART-1 (Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology) Trust: Agency-primaryⓘ Last verified Remove × |
|---|---|
| Agency | ESA |
| Status | Deorbited |
| Mission type | Orbiter |
| Launch date | 2003-09-27 |
| End date | 2006-09-03 |
| Orbit | Polar orbit ~300 × 3,000 km (spiraled from GTO over 14 months using ion drive) |
| Mass | 367 kgas of [1] |
| Instruments | 4 instrumentsas of [1]AMIE camera, SIR near-IR spectrometer, D-CIXS X-ray spectrometer, XSM X-ray solar monitor |
| Key findings |
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| Outcome | ESA's first mission to the Moon and Europe's first use of Hall-effect ion propulsion in deep space. SMART-1 took 14 months to spiral from GTO to lunar orbit using its ion engine, validating technology for future missions. Deliberately impacted the Moon's near side on 3 September 2006. |
All 11 lunar orbital missions with primary-source citations from NASA, ESA, JAXA, ISRO, CNSA, and NASA NSSDCA. Coverage spans Clementine (1994) through LRO (active 2026). Pure URL state — bookmark or share the link and the comparison reproduces exactly.