NASA Launches GRAIL Mission to Moon for Detailed Study

To begin a study of our moon in unprecedented detail, from the outer crust to deep within the lunar core, NASA launched the twin lunar Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 9:08AM Eastern time on Saturday September 10th, 2011.

The first to reach a lunar orbit will be the GRAIL-A spacecraft on New Year’s Eve 2011. Its twin, GRAIL-B, is expected to arrive the following day on New Year’s Day 2012. The two spacecraft are expected to conduct their detailed observation over an 82 day period.

Relying on power from the sun, the spacecraft will initially focus their study on detailed measurements of the moon’s gravity field. Scientists plan to use the data from the two GRAIL spacecraft to help them better understand how the Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system formed.

“If there was ever any doubt that Florida’s Space Coast would continue to be open for business, that thought was drowned out by the roar of today’s GRAIL launch,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. “GRAIL and many other exciting upcoming missions make clear that NASA is taking its next big leap into deep space exploration, and the space industry continues to provide the jobs and workers needed to support this critical effort.”

While the Apollo missions took only about three days to cover the roughly 250,000 miles (402,336 km) from the Earth to the Moon. The Grail spacecraft will need about three and a half months. This is because the spacecraft were launched with much less powerful rockets than the massive Saturn V vehicles.

Without the concern for a human crew’s health and physical needs, a much lower-energy trajectory from the smaller launch vehicle was all that was needed. As the spacecraft continue on their 2.5 million mile journey to the moon, scientists will have plenty of time to make adjustments to their final plans for the lunar observations.

“Since the earliest humans looked skyward, they have been fascinated by the moon,” said GRAIL principal investigator Maria Zuber from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. “GRAIL will take lunar exploration to a new level, providing an unprecedented characterization of the moon’s interior that will advance understanding of how the moon formed and evolved.”

More information about the GRAIL mission is available at: http://www.nasa.gov/grail