Nasa Moon Probe Crash, Two NASA moon probes used to help scientists learn more about the internal structure and composition of the moon will end their $496 million mission on Monday by being intentionally crashed into a mountain near the moon's north pole.
NASA said Thursday that the twin Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (Grail) probes, known as Ebb and Flow, will slam into the raised rim of a moon crater at an estimated 3,760 miles per hour at 5:28 p.m. EST Monday. The probes will impact about 20 seconds apart.
Mission engineers need to guide the washing machine-size probes down because they have run out of fuel to keep them in lunar orbit. No imagery of the impact is expected because the region will be in shadow at the time of the crash.
The mountain where the two spacecraft will make contact is located near a crater named Goldschmidt, which was given the name by elementary school students in Bozeman, Mont., who won a contest.
The crash zone is far from any area where previous moon missions, such as where NASA's Apollo efforts touched down, so Grail's final moments won't endanger sites of historical importance, officials said.Launched in September 2011, both spacecraft have been flying in formation around the moon since Jan. 1, 2012.
The probes completed their main task of mapping lunar gravity between March and May.
Grail’s discoveries include the fact that the moon’s crust is thinner and more fractured by meteorite impacts than scientists had suspected.
"Grail has produced the highest-resolution, highest-quality gravity field for any planet in the solar system, including Earth," said Grail principal investigator Maria Zuber.
The violent demise of Ebb and Flow should provide mission scientists with some additional information about the mechanical properties of the crater rim, perhaps shedding further light on lunar composition.
It's also possible that the probes' impact will expel water ice or other volatiles into the wispy lunar atmosphere, where they can be detected by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
The mission is part of the Discovery Program managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
NASA said Thursday that the twin Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (Grail) probes, known as Ebb and Flow, will slam into the raised rim of a moon crater at an estimated 3,760 miles per hour at 5:28 p.m. EST Monday. The probes will impact about 20 seconds apart.
Mission engineers need to guide the washing machine-size probes down because they have run out of fuel to keep them in lunar orbit. No imagery of the impact is expected because the region will be in shadow at the time of the crash.
The mountain where the two spacecraft will make contact is located near a crater named Goldschmidt, which was given the name by elementary school students in Bozeman, Mont., who won a contest.
The crash zone is far from any area where previous moon missions, such as where NASA's Apollo efforts touched down, so Grail's final moments won't endanger sites of historical importance, officials said.Launched in September 2011, both spacecraft have been flying in formation around the moon since Jan. 1, 2012.
The probes completed their main task of mapping lunar gravity between March and May.
Grail’s discoveries include the fact that the moon’s crust is thinner and more fractured by meteorite impacts than scientists had suspected.
"Grail has produced the highest-resolution, highest-quality gravity field for any planet in the solar system, including Earth," said Grail principal investigator Maria Zuber.
The violent demise of Ebb and Flow should provide mission scientists with some additional information about the mechanical properties of the crater rim, perhaps shedding further light on lunar composition.
It's also possible that the probes' impact will expel water ice or other volatiles into the wispy lunar atmosphere, where they can be detected by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
The mission is part of the Discovery Program managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
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