Europe's SMART-1 lunar mission has beamed back its first close-up pictures of the Moon.

The mosaics of images, taken on 29 December 2004 and released on Wednesday, show the pockmarked surface of Earth's shadowy satellite from an altitude of between 1000 and 5000 kilometres. The long shadows cast by the crater rims should help scientists estimate the height of the walls.

One picture shows the Pythagoras impact crater, which measures 120 kilometres across, with a peak jutting upwards from the centre of its basin.

Foing says a peak is often present in craters that resulted from large meteorite impacts. This is because some of the rock pulverised or melted in the impact then splashes back up from the middle, similar to the immediate reaction of a pool struck by a single rain drop.

Elemental composition

The probe entered the Moon's orbit on 15 November 2004 and began its mapping after a period of systems checks. "We have shown our camera is working, which is good news," says Bernard Foing, project scientist for SMART-1.

Picture by picture, the SMART-1 mission team aims to build a global map of the Moon before the end of the mapping phase on 9 February 2005. Then the spacecraft will descend to within 300 km of the surface, in preparation for an analysis of the moon's mineral and elemental composition.

Many missions have photographed and analysed the Moon, but a key purpose of SMART-1's mission is to test new technologies. These include an ion propulsion system, autonomous navigation and laser communication with Earth.

However, mission scientists also expect to make new discoveries, such as whether the Moon resulted from a massive collision and whether there is water ice in craters near the its poles.

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