[meteorite-list] GRAIL Spacecraft Returns First Video from Far Side Of The Moon

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2012 17:07:05 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <201202020107.q12175r3001631_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

Feb. 1, 2012

Dwayne Brown
Headquarters, Washington202-358-1726
dwayne.c.brown at nasa.gov

DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-9011
agle at jpl.nasa.gov

Caroline McCall
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
617-253-1682
cmcall5 at mit.edu

Whitney Lawrence Mullen
Sally Ride Science, San Diego
858-638-1432
wmullen at sallyridescience.com

RELEASE: 12-040

NASA SPACECRAFT RETURNS FIRST VIDEO FROM FAR SIDE OF THE MOON

WASHINGTON -- A camera aboard one of NASA's twin Gravity Recovery And
Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) lunar spacecraft has returned its first
unique view of the far side of the moon. MoonKAM, or Moon Knowledge
Acquired by Middle school students, will be used by students
nationwide to select lunar images for study.

GRAIL consists of two identical spacecraft, recently named Ebb and
Flow, each of which is equipped with a MoonKam. The images were taken
as part of a test of Ebb's MoonKam on Jan. 19. The GRAIL project
plans to test the MoonKAM aboard Flow at a later date.

To view the 30-second video clip, visit:

http://go.nasa.gov/zZXAPs

In the video, the north pole of the moon is visible at the top of the
screen as the spacecraft flies toward the lunar south pole. One of
the first prominent geological features seen on the lower third of
the moon is the Mare Orientale, a 560 mile-wide (900 kilometer)
impact basin that straddles both the moon's near and far side.

The clip ends with rugged terrain just short of the lunar south pole.
To the left of center, near the bottom of the screen, is the 93
mile-wide (149 kilometer) Drygalski crater with a distinctive
star-shaped formation in the middle. The formation is a central peak,
created many billions of years ago by a comet or asteroid impact.

"The quality of the video is excellent and should energize our MoonKAM
students as they prepare to explore the moon," said Maria Zuber,
GRAIL principal investigator from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology in Cambridge.

The twin spacecraft successfully achieved lunar orbit last New Year's
Eve and New Year's Day. Previously named GRAIL-A and -B, the washing
machine-sized spacecraft received their new names from fourth graders
at the Emily Dickinson Elementary School in Bozeman, Mont., following
a nationwide student-naming contest.

Thousands of fourth- to eighth-grade students will select target areas
on the lunar surface and send requests to the GRAIL MoonKAM Mission
Operations Center in San Diego. Photos of the target areas will be
sent back by the satellites for students to study. The MoonKAM
program is led by Sally Ride, America's first woman in space. Her
team at Sally Ride Science and undergraduate students at the
University of California in San Diego will engage middle schools
across the country in the GRAIL mission and lunar exploration. GRAIL
is NASA's first planetary mission carrying instruments fully
dedicated to education and public outreach.

"We have had great response from schools around the country, more than
2,500 signed up to participate so far," Ride said. "In mid-March, the
first pictures of the moon will be taken by students using MoonKAM. I
expect this will excite many students about possible careers in
science and engineering."

Launched in September 2011, Ebb and Flow periodically perform
trajectory correction maneuvers that, over time, will lower their
orbits to near-circular ones with an altitude of about 34 miles (55
kilometers). During their science mission, the duo will answer
longstanding questions about the moon and give scientists a better
understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar
system formed.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages the
GRAIL mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
The GRAIL mission is part of the Discovery Program managed at NASA's
Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Lockheed Martin
Space Systems in Denver built the spacecraft.

For more information about GRAIL, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/grail

Information about MoonKAM is available at:

https://moonkam.ucsd.edu/

-end-
Received on Wed 01 Feb 2012 08:07:05 PM PST