THE biggest game of stone-skimming in human history will be played by scientists next month when they crash a spacecraft into the Moon.

Smart-1, which is the size of a washing machine, was launched by the European Space Agency in September 2003 with just 60 litres of fuel on board. Its mission, which cost £75 million, was to map the Moon in detail.

Powered by the sun and xenon fuel, it has completed 2,000 orbits and is reaching the end of its usefulness, so the agency decided on one last experiment.

By sending Smart-1 crashing into a lunar crater at 5,000mph (8,047km/h) at an angle of about one degree, astronomers hope that it will bounce at least once and perhaps several times before coming to rest.

This should send a huge cloud of dust more than 12 miles above the surface of the Moon, giving them the chance to analyse the material beneath the surface dust.

“It’s like skimming a stone across water,” said Professor Manuel Grande, of the University of Aberystwyth.

The impact, in the early hours of September 3, should be visible from the Earth through small telescopes or binoculars, although observers will need to be in North or South America. It will not be visible from Britain.

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