The lunar probe looks back on Earth

SMART-1 alive and functioning...

The first picture of Earth taken by the european spacecraft SMART-1 on 21 May 2004 from a distance of 70.000 kilometres. The spacecraft was launched summer 2003, and it will arrive in early 2005.

First of ESA's small missions to test new technology, SMART-1 is also the first European spacecraft to go to the Moon. More than 30 years after the americans left and focused on more mundane business...

Once in orbit around the Moon, SMART-1 will survey the lunar terrain using visible and near-infrared light, to study its chemical composition and geological history.

The lunar probes main objective is to test solar-electric primary propulsion for future deep-space missions. But it will also investigate the theory that the Moon was formed following the violent collision of a smaller planet with Earth, 4500 million years ago.
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The image:

From top left, Scandinavia, Denmark, United Kingdom and clear west and northern France. Southern France and Spain are at the centre under cloud cover. North Africa is bottom right.

The camera:

The image was taken by the Advanced Moon Micro-Imager Experiment (AMIE) camera. This imaging system has been developed by Space-X, space exploration, in Neuchatel, Switzerland. The AMIE camera is a remarkably compact design, a package of dedicated optics, electronics and mechanical interfaces that weighs only 450 grams. "The image shows clearly that the AMIE camera works well, and that we are really in space," says Principal Investigator Jean Luc Josset, Space-X.

credits: esa/space-x/smart-1 amie team