Earlier this month, the GRAIL Lunar spacecraft beamed back its first video from the far side of the moon. NASA released a 30-second video clip of GRAIL’s view of the moon as part of their MoonKam project.
GRAIL was launched on September 10, 2011 for the purpose of mapping the Moon’s gravitational field, in what NASA describes as, “unprecedented detail.” The GRAIL mission consists of two satellites that were placed into orbit around the moon in tandem.
As the two satellites fly over various areas of greater and lesser gravity, they will either adjust their paths toward or away from each other. These adjustments are then interpreted by an onboard science payload, Lunar Gravity Ranging System, allowing NASA scientists to create a high resolution map of the Moon’s gravitational field.
The Lunar Gravity Ranging System can precisely measure the adjustments made by the two satellites to nearly a micron; which is roughly the size of a red blood cell! The two satellites are also carrying a set of cameras for MoonKAM.
This is the first time that a NASA planetary mission is carrying equipment that will be used solely for education and public outreach.
Moon Knowledge Acquired
MoonKAM, which stands for Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students, is the GRAIL mission’s education and public outreach program.
The program, led by Dr. Sally Ride, is designed to allow fifth through eighth grade students to participate in lunar exploration. These students can choose various target areas of the moon and send these requests are sent to the Missions Operations Center.
Images, in the form of photos or videos, of the requests are then posted to the MoonKAM website.
In a press release, Dr. Ride, America's first woman in space, stated, “We have had great response from schools around the country, more than 2,500 signed up to participate so far."
She went on to state, "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."
The GRAIL mission has been focused on education and public outreach since its inception. Even the satellites’ names, Ebb and Flow, were a result of school participation. Fourth graders from the Emily Dickinson Elementary School in Bozeman, Mont won a NASA-sponsored contest to name the space crafts.
Initially the satellites were named GRAIL-A and GRAIL-B.
However, as a result of the October 2011 naming contest where nearly 900 classrooms with more than 11,000 students participated, the names were changed. Entries were submitted from students in 45 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.
Revealing the Far Side of the Moon
For the next 80 days, the MoonKAM project’s camera will document, through images, the surface of the moon. The video posted in February 1st was a result from the initial test of one of the MoonKAM cameras on board the GRAIL satellite, Ebb.
Maria Zuber, GRAIL’s principal investigator at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, said, “The quality of the video is excellent and should energize our MoonKAM students as they prepare to explore the moon.”
The 30-second video clip depicts the Moon’s North Pole as Ebb flies toward the lunar South Pole. This flight path allows viewers to see the Mare Orientale, a 560 mile-wide impact basin that encompasses both the Moon's near and far side.
The clip also includes a shot of the Drygalski crater, a 93 mile-wide crater with a distinctive star-shaped central peak located in the middle.
The other satellite, Flow, was not part of the January test; therefore, no images were obtained from its onboard MoonKAM camera. NASA plans to test this camera later on during the mission.
Dennis Dufrene is the resident historian and technical writer. With this background, Dennis brings insight and accuracy to the stories published here at Top Secret Writers. Dennis has 314 post(s) at Top Secret Writers
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