GRAIL Mission Returns First Video of Moon’s Far Side

The twin GRAIL satellites have sent back this first video of the far side of the moon, taken with the awesomely named “MoonKAM”. Quite a view of something we don’t ever get to see (unless you’re an Apollo astronaut or a space probe).

(by JPLnews)

moderation:

NASA’s Unprecedented Science Twins are GO to Orbit our Moon on New Year’s Eve

—

In less than three days, NASA will deliver a double barreled New Year’s package to our Moon when an unprecedented pair of science satellites fire up their critical braking thrusters for insertion into lunar orbit on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

NASA’s dynamic duo of GRAIL probes are “GO” for Lunar Orbit Insertion said the mission team at a briefing for reporters today, Dec. 28. GRAIL’s goal is to exquisitely map the moons interior from the gritty outer crust to the depths of the core with unparalled precision.

“GRAIL is a Journey to the Center of the Moon”, said Maria Zuber, GRAIL principal investigator from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge at the press briefing.  

This newfound knowledge will fundamentally alter our understanding of how the moon and other rocky bodies in our solar system – including Earth – formed and evolved over 4.5 Billion years time.

After a three month voyage of more than 2.5 million miles (4 million kilometers) since launching from Florida on Sept. 10, 2011, NASA’s twin GRAIL spacecraft, dubbed Grail-A and GRAIL-B, are now on final approach and are rapidly closing in on the Moon following a trajectory that will hurl them low over the south pole and into an initially near polar elliptical lunar orbit lasting 11.5 hours.

(via universetoday)

GRAIL is a really exciting project to map the interior of the moon by detecting tiny gravitational differences and relating those to interior structure. They call it a “CT scan for the Moon”.

Here’s a superb video from NASA detailing the mission, why there’s a pair of satellites instead of one, and what they hope to learn:

Moon-bound twin GRAIL spacecraft launched this morning! These twin GRAIL spacecraft are setting out on a mission to map the Moon’s gravity. Here’s how it will work, from EarthSky: Here’s how GRAIL’s gravity-mapping ability works. As one body in space orbits another, changes in the larger body’s topography – its hills and valleys, for example – minutely affect the orbital path of the smaller body by slightly increasing or decreasing the amount of gravity exerted upon it. As GRAIL records these changes, it will reveal details about mountains, craters, and other features on the moon, including those below the moon’s surface. Once arriving at the moon, the twins will spend about two months sliding into orbit with GRAIL B following GRAIL A. After the proper orbit is established, an instrument on board each craft will measure relative changes in velocity, which can then be translated to map lunar gravity. The instruments are so precise they can detect a change in the distance between the two GRAIL orbiters the diameter of a red blood cell. That’s some sensitive machinery, eh? (via EarthSky)
View Separately

Moon-bound twin GRAIL spacecraft launched this morning!

These twin GRAIL spacecraft are setting out on a mission to map the Moon’s gravity. Here’s how it will work, from EarthSky:

Here’s how GRAIL’s gravity-mapping ability works. As one body in space orbits another, changes in the larger body’s topography – its hills and valleys, for example – minutely affect the orbital path of the smaller body by slightly increasing or decreasing the amount of gravity exerted upon it. As GRAIL records these changes, it will reveal details about mountains, craters, and other features on the moon, including those below the moon’s surface.

Once arriving at the moon, the twins will spend about two months sliding into orbit with GRAIL B following GRAIL A. After the proper orbit is established, an instrument on board each craft will measure relative changes in velocity, which can then be translated to map lunar gravity. The instruments are so precise they can detect a change in the distance between the two GRAIL orbiters the diameter of a red blood cell.

That’s some sensitive machinery, eh?

(via EarthSky)

NASA launches GRAIL twin spacecraft to Moon this morning.

(by AssociatedPress)