After 16 months of successful data collection, the European Space Agency (ESA) lunar spacecraft SMART-1 is going out with a bang. Mission controllers at ESA have programmed it to crash into the Moon. Even its death is going to be put to good use - scientists will monitor the impact event to learn more about the lunar soil.
Actually the word "crash" doesn't accurately describe the impact. It's more like a bouncy skippy stop.
The spacecraft will descend at such a shallow angle (about 1 degree) that it might hit a mountain before reaching the planned impact site.
If it does reach the planned site, it will skim into the ground and possibly bounce a few times before coming to a stop.
Since it is expected that SMART-1 will only make a 10-metre wide crater, I suspect that only observatories with the biggest ass telescopes will be able to see the impact. Still, for those of you with fair sized scopes (say 12-inch) it's worth a try.
As for those of us who live in Singapore the impact event is scheduled to occur at 1:42 pm (5.42am GMT) in the afternoon, so there's no way we'll see anything.
Except maybe through the evening news.
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