Us Moon Probes Set To Enter Lunar Orbit

Over the New Year's weekend, a pair of spacecraft the size of washing machines are set to enter orbit around it in the latest lunar mission. Their job is to MEASURE THE UNEVEN GRAVITY FIELD and determine what lies beneath - straight down to the core, in the 496 million, three-month NASA mission.On New Year's Eve, one of the Grail probes - short for GRAVITY RECOVERY AND INTERIOR LABORATORY - will fire its engine to slow down so that it could be captured into orbit. This move will be repeated by the twin spacecraft on New Year's Day, January 1, 2012.As the probes circle the moon, regional changes in the lunar gravity field will cause them to speed up or slow down. This in turn will change the distance between them. Radio signals transmitted by the spacecraft will measure the slight distance gaps, allowing RESEARCHERS to map the underlying gravity field.Using the gravity information, scientists can deduce what's below or at the lunar surface such as mountains and craters and may help explain why the far side of the moon is more rugged than the side that faces Earth.The probes are officially known as Grail-A and Grail-B. Several months ago, NASA hosted a contest inviting schools and students to submit new names. The probes will be christened with the winning names after the second orbit insertion, Zuber said.Besides the one instrument on board, each spacecraft also carries a camera for educational purposes. Run by a company founded by Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, middle school students from participating schools can choose their own lunar targets to image during the mission.The gravitational field of the Moon has been measured through tracking the Doppler shift of radio signals emitted by orbiting spacecraft. The main lunar gravity features are mascons, large positive gravitational anomalies associated with some of the giant impact basins, partly caused by the dense mare basaltic lava flows that fill these basins. These anomalies greatly influence the orbit of spacecraft about the Moon. There are some puzzles: lava flows by themselves cannot explain all of the gravitational signature, and some mascons exist that are not linked to mare volcanism.In 2013, NASA'S Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) will explore the extremely-thin Moon atmosphere and floating dust. This moon mission will launch from the MID-ATLANTIC REGIONAL SPACEPORT in Virginia.Stay turned, KNOWLEDGE OF THE MOON is about to increase with the integration of the internationally gathered lunar surface mapping data with the gravitational data and NEW KNOWLEDGE of the lunar atmosphere by mid-decade. There may even be a privately financed human mission to the Moon. MORE.

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