Posts Tagged ‘Earth’

GRAIL family arrives at the Moon

Grail A and-Grail B spacecraft is now orbiting the moon. Time for research!

The two spacecraft left Earth in September . And at the very end of 2011 had come: GRAIL-A itself was orbiting the moon bring. That worked on New Year’s Eve. A day later waited GRAIL-B the same contract. And that mission was successful.

The GRAIL probes are thus finally arrived at their final destination. But that does not mean that they can get started right away. The coming period is used for the two probes at the correct height and with the right speed and the distance between the two in orbit around the moon to fly. If everything goes according to plan, the probes in March 2012 with the real work begins.

GRAIL stands for Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory . The probes are along the Moon’s gravity field mapping. Based on this information, scientists hope to learn more about the composition of the moon. And that information can tell us how hopefully the moon and other celestial bodies in our solar system have been established. ”The GRAIL-space probes, our knowledge of the moon and the evolution of our planet greatly increase,” predicts NASA chief Charles Bolden.