Europe's first Moon probe, SMART-1, has been put into its lunar orbit as planned, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced here Tuesday.

Thirteen months after its launch by Ariane 5, the unmanned satellite SMART-1, whose mission is to map the Moon's topography and mineralogical composition, "reached its first lunar orbit Nov 15 at 1753 GMT," SMART-1 project manager
Giuseppe Racca said, Xinhua reports.

The aim of SMART -- an acronym of Small Missions for Advanced Research and Technology -- is to see if its technology could work in extended and even manned missions to planets.

The present orbit of SMART-1, between 5,000 and 6,000 km to the moon, is to be modified within four days. After a series of adjustments, the satellite is to gradually drop into its working orbit on Jan 13 next year.
 
SMART-1 will not land on the Moon, but will work from its orbit, which will vary from 300 km at the South Pole and 3,000 km at the North Pole, according to ESA.

The 370-kg satellite was launched in September 2003 and is powered by an ion engine. The engine has worked for more than 3,300 hours and allows a distance of some 78 million km, loaded with 52 kg of fuel only.

With a payload of remote sensors designed mainly to seek water ice near the Moon's surface, SMART-1 broke a new path to future long-term missions in the solar system and would be a huge boost for setting up a human settlement, according to ESA.

--Indo-Asian News Service