Tech | December 31, 2011 | 13 comments

Grails and Probes, Oh My!

source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2011/12/28/nasa-grail-moon-probes.html

Image
Incredulous
NASA's Grail Probes Nearing Moon: The New Year's countdown to the moon has begun.

NASA said Wednesday that its twin spacecraft were on course to arrive back-to-back at the moon after a 3 1/2-month journey. Twin probes will study the moon's uneven lunar gravity field. "We're on our way there," said project manager David Lehman of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the $496 million US mission.

The Grail probes — short for Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory — won't land on the lunar surface. Instead, they were poised to slip into orbit to study the uneven lunar gravity field. Grail-A was scheduled to arrive on New Year's Eve, followed by Grail-B on New Year's Day. Lehman said team members won't celebrate until both probes are safely in orbit.

It's been a long voyage for the near-identical Grail spacecraft, which travelled more than 3.22 million kilometres since launching in September. Though the moon is relatively close at about 402,000 kilometres away, Grail took a roundabout way to save on costs by launching on a small rocket.

Once at the moon, the probes will spend the next two months tweaking their positions before they start collecting data in March. The pair will fly in formation at an altitude of 54.72 kilometres above the surface, with an average separation of 199.55 kilometres.

More at the link.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2011/12/28/nasa-grail-moon-probes.html
  1. groups:
    Community,   Tech,   Culture,   Technology,   2 more
  2. tags:
    Space,  NASA
  3. recommended by:
    pjacobs51
  4.     
    |

13 comments // Grails and Probes, Oh My!

more from Tech:
from the community

top videos