EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY'S DR FOING AND PROFESSOR GRANDE STAND WITH MODEL OF SMART-1 LUNAR PROBE IN...

The European Space Agency's Dr Bernard Foing, Smart 1 Project Scientist (R) and Professor Manuel Grande, Principal Investigator for the D-CIXS X-ray Spectrometer instrument at CCLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, stand with a model of the new SMART 1 lunar probe at a news conference in London, August 18, 2003. Smart 1 is due to be launched from Kourou in French Guiana on August 28 in the European Space Agency's first mission to the moon. The probe will test solar electric propulsion and other deep-space technologies, whilst performing scientific observations of the Moon, including looking at its origin and searching for ice craters at the Moon's south pole. It will carry with it the D-CIXS X-ray spectrometer, developed in the UK, which will help determine the composition of the Moon and provide missing information about how the Moon was formed. REUTERS/Stephen Hird SH/ASA