ESA Science & Technology - Electric Propulsion on SMART-1 - A Technology Milestone

Publication date: 15 February 2007

Authors: Estublier, D. et al.

Journal: ESA Bulletin
Volume: 129
Page: 40-46
Year: 2007

Copyright: ESA

In December 2002, when France's Stentor satellite was all set to use electric propulsion for stationkeeping, ESA's SMART-1 was just completing its first end-to-end spacecraft test. Then Stentor was lost in the Ariane-5 launch failure, making SMART-1 the first and only technology demonstration mission with Hall-effect plasma propulsion. As a result, there was a great deal of interest in the electric propulsion community in SMART-1's flight.