EBB & FLOW - "Прилив" и "Отлив"

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Montana Students Pick Winning Names for Moon Craft

PASADENA, Calif. -- Twin NASA spacecraft that achieved orbit around the moon New Year's Eve and New Year's Day have new names, thanks to elementary students in Bozeman, Mont. Their winning entry, "Ebb and Flow," was selected as part of a nationwide school contest that began in October 2011.

The names were submitted by fourth graders from the Emily Dickinson Elementary School. Nearly 900 classrooms with more than 11,000 students from 45 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia participated in the contest. Previously named Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory, or GRAIL-A and -B, the washing machine-sized spacecraft begin science operations in March, after a launch in September 2011.

"The 28 students of Nina DiMauro's class at the Emily Dickinson Elementary School have really hit the nail on the head," said Maria Zuber, GRAIL principal investigator from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. "We were really impressed that the students drew their inspiration by researching GRAIL and its goal of measuring gravity. Ebb and Flow truly capture the spirit and excitement of our mission."

Zuber and Sally Ride, America's first woman in space and CEO of Sally Ride Science in San Diego, selected the names following the contest, which attracted 890 proposals via the Internet and mail. The contest invited ideas from students ages 5 to 18 enrolled in U.S. schools. Although everything from spelling and grammar to creativity was considered, Zuber and Ride primarily took into account the quality of submitted essays.

"With submissions from all over the United States and even some from abroad, there were a lot of great entries to review," Ride said. "This contest generated a great deal of excitement in classrooms across America, and along with it an opportunity to use that excitement to teach science."

GRAIL is NASA's first planetary mission carrying instruments fully dedicated to education and public outreach. Each spacecraft carries a small camera called GRAIL MoonKAM (Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students). Thousands of students in grades five through eight will select target areas on the lunar surface and send requests for study to the GRAIL MoonKAM Mission Operations Center in San Diego.

The winning prize for the Dickinson students is to choose the first camera images. Dickinson is one of nearly 2,000 schools registered for the MoonKAM program, which is led by Ride and her team at Sally Ride Science in collaboration with undergraduate students at the University of California in San Diego.

"These spacecraft represent not only great science, but great inspiration for our future," said Jim Green, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division in Washington. "As they study our lunar neighbor, Ebb and Flow will undergo nearly the same motion as the tides we feel here on Earth."

Launched in September 2011, Ebb and Flow will be placed in a near-polar, near-circular orbit with an altitude of about 34 miles (55 kilometers). During their science mission, the duo will answer longstanding questions about the moon and give scientists a better understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system formed.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/grail/news/grail20120117.html

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Лунные зонды-"близнецы" GRAIL получили имена "Прилив" и "Отлив"

МОСКВА, 17 янв - РИА Новости. Зонды-"близнецы" НАСА GRAIL, вышедшие на орбиту вокруг Луны в новогодние праздники, названы Эбб (Ebb, прилив) и Флоу (Flow, отлив), победителями конкурса "имен" для аппаратов стали учащиеся четвертого класса школы в штате Монтана, сообщила на пресс-конференции член жюри конкурса, первая женщина-астронавт США Салли Райд.

Два зонда GRAIL (Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory), в задачу которых входит составление беспрецедентно точной карты гравитационного поля Луны, были запущены 10 сентября. На дорогу до Луны по сложной экономичной траектории им потребовалось около трех с половиной месяцев. GRAIL-A пролетел около 4,2 миллиона километров, а его "напарник" - 4,3 миллиона километров. При этом дистанция до Луны составляет около 402 тысяч километров и "Аполлоны" преодолевали это расстояние за трое суток. Аппараты вышли на орбиту вокруг Луны 1 и 2 января соответственно.

Словосочетание ebb and flow в английском языке используется для обозначения приливов и отливов, а также метафорически - оно означает "взлеты и падения". Как отметила научный руководитель проекта Мария Зубер (Maria Zuber), организаторам конкурса очень понравилась идея использовать для обозначения зондов, изучающих гравитацию, слова, связанные с гравитационным влиянием Луны на Землю.

Победителей, учеников четвертого класса школы в городе Бозман, штат Монтана, в ходе трансляции представила сама Райд. Она напомнила, что зонды-"близнецы" стали первыми космическими аппаратами с научными инструментами, предназначенными исключительно для образовательных целей. В рамках проекта MoonKAM, разработанного компанией Sally Ride Science, школьники всего мира с помощью камер на зондах смогут сделать фотографии любого понравившегося места на Луне.

По словам Райд, для участия в MoonKAM записалось уже около 2,1 тысячи школ, в том числе и школа, в которой учатся победители конкурса. Всего свои варианты названий для аппаратов предложили почти 900 классов и более 11 тысяч школьников из 45 штатов.

Зубер также отметила, что сейчас зонды находятся в отличном состоянии. GRAIL-A, или Эбб, делает один виток вокруг спутника Земли за 3,7 часа, находясь при этом на высоте около 93 километров, а его "близнец", GRAIL-B, или Флоу, - за 3,9 часа, высота его орбиты составляет 109 километров.

К 8 февраля период обращения зондов сократится до 2 часов, а высота орбиты будет доведена до рабочей - 55 километров. Затем в течение месяца будет проходить точная настройка орбит и положения аппаратов, и только 8 марта стартует 82-дневная научная фаза миссии, которая завершится к концу мая.

Двигаясь по одинаковой орбите один за другим, зонды с высокой точностью будут измерять расстояние между собой, фиксируя изменения, связанные с гравитационными аномалиями. Расстояния между "близнецами" будут измеряться с точностью до десятых долей микрона.

В результате ученые смогут получить беспрецедентно точную карту гравитационного поля Луны, которая позволит им выяснить детали внутреннего строения естественного спутника Земли, а также проверить некоторые гипотезы о ее рождении и эволюции. В частности, эти данные помогут проверить теорию о существовании второй луны.

Основная научная программа миссии продлится 82 дня - с марта по июнь. Поскольку никель-водородные аккумуляторы аппаратов относительно слабы, июньское лунное затмение может разрядить их настолько, что зонды не смогут работать дальше.

Однако если они не будут потеряны, ученые намерены добиваться у НАСА продления миссии. Во второй период ученые намерены вдвое уменьшить высоту орбиты зондов - до 25 километров, что позволит им, в частности, построить гравитационные профили самой распространенной на Луне формы рельефа - 15-километровых чашеобразных кратеров.

Стоимость проекта составляет около 496 миллионов долларов.

http://ria.ru/science/20120117/541920237.html

[Space Alien]

Один из зондов GRAIL снял свое первое видео обратной стороны Луны[/size]

Один из американских зондов-"близнецов" GRAIL, в новогодние праздники вышедших на орбиту вокруг Луны, включил камеру и снял первое 30-секундное видео обратной стороны спутника Земли, говорится в сообщении Лаборатории реактивного движения (JPL) НАСА.

Видеокамера MoonKAM сняла поверхность обратной стороны Луны:

Здесь же ...

Два зонда GRAIL (Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory), в задачу которых входит составление беспрецедентно точной карты гравитационного поля Луны, были запущены 10 сентября. На дорогу до Луны по сложной экономичной траектории им потребовалось около трех с половиной месяцев. Аппараты вышли на орбиту вокруг Луны 1 и 2 января соответственно, а 17 января НАСА объявило, что по итогам конкурса среди школьников зонды получили имена "Эбб" (Ebb, прилив) и "Флоу" (Flow, отлив).

Оба зонда оборудованы специальными камерами MoonKAM - с их помощью в рамках одноименного проекта школьники США смогут сделать фотографии любого понравившегося места на Луне. Камеры зонда "Эбб" включили для тестирования 19 января, а камеры на его "близнеце" планируется включить позже.

В снятом зондом 30-секундном видеоролике можно увидеть северный полюс Луны, 900-километровое море Восточное, кратер Дрыгальского диаметром около 150 километров с центральным пиком в форме пятиконечной звезды, а также южный полярный регион с его неровным рельефом.

"Качество видео отличное, и оно должно "зарядить" наших школьников-участников проекта MoonKAM, которые пока готовятся исследовать Луну", - сказала научный руководитель проекта Мария Зубер (Maria Zuber).

Организатор проекта, первая женщина-астронавт США Салли Райд отметила, что школьники получат возможность сделать свои первые снимки Луны в середине марта.

Бесплатно зарегистрировавшись на сайте проекта MoonKAM, его участники смогут следить за траекторией движения GRAIL по орбите вокруг Луны, выбирать места для снимков и заказывать их в "ЦУПе" MoonKAM в университете штата Калифорния в Сан-Диего. Для того чтобы дети могли выбрать интересующий их участок, на сайте будет доступна интерактивная карта Луны, составленная по снимкам других лунных аппаратов.

После того, как зонд пройдет выбранное место и сделает фотографии, они будут опубликованы в галерее на сайте, и школьники смогут использовать их, например, для своих научных и художественных проектов.

Два аппарата GRAIL в течение 82 дней будут лететь друг за другом на высоте около 55 километров по полярной орбите вокруг Луны. Измеряя расстояние между аппаратами, которое будет меняться по мере того, как они проходят лунные гравитационные аномалии, ученые построят гравитационную карту спутника и получат представление о внутреннем строении Луны. Общая стоимость миссии составляет 496 миллионов долларов.

http://ria.ru/science/20120202/554580860.html

Скрины:

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Видео http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=130956191

[Space Alien]

И на Youtub`e  -

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NASA's Twin GRAIL Spacecraft Begin Collecting Lunar Science Data

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft orbiting the moon officially have begun their science collection phase. During the next 84 days, scientists will obtain a high-resolution map of the lunar gravitational field to learn about the moon's internal structure and composition in unprecedented detail. The data also will provide a better understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system formed and evolved.

"The initiation of science data collection is a time when the team lets out a collective sigh of relief because we are finally doing what we came to do," said Maria Zuber, principal investigator for the GRAIL mission at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, "but it is also a time where we have to put the coffee pot on, roll up our sleeves and get to work."

The GRAIL mission's twin, washing-machine-sized spacecraft, named Ebb and Flow, entered lunar orbit on New Year's Eve and New Years Day. GRAIL's science phase began yesterday at 5:15 p.m. PST (8:15 p.m. EST). During this mission phase, the spacecraft will transmit radio signals precisely defining the rate of change of distance between the two. The distance between the spacecraft will change slightly as they fly over areas of greater and lesser gravity caused by visible features such as mountains, craters and masses hidden beneath the lunar surface. Science activities are expected to conclude on May 29, after GRAIL maps the gravity field of the moon three times.

"We are in a near-polar, near-circular orbit with an average altitude of about 34 miles (55 kilometers) right now," said David Lehman, GRAIL project manager from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. "During the science phase, our spacecraft will orbit the moon as high as 31 miles (51 kilometers) and as low as 10 miles (16 kilometers). They will get as close to each other as 40 miles (65 kilometers) and as far apart as 140 miles (225 kilometers)."

The two spacecraft were previously named GRAIL A and B. The names Ebb and Flow were the result of a nationwide student contest to choose new names for them. The winning entry was submitted by fourth graders from the Emily Dickinson Elementary School in Bozeman, Mont. Nearly 900 classrooms with more than 11,000 students from 45 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, participated in the contest.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/grail/news/grail20120307.html

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Зонды GRAIL начали сбор данных о гравитационном поле Луны

МОСКВА, 7 мар - РИА Новости. Два зонда GRAIL (Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory), в задачу которых входит составление беспрецедентно точной карты гравитационного поля Луны, приступили к сбору научных данных, сообщает НАСА.

Зонда GRAIL были запущены 10 сентября 2011 года. На дорогу до Луны по сложной экономичной траектории им потребовалось около трех с половиной месяцев - каждый из них пролетел около 4,2 миллиона километров, притом, что дистанция до Луны составляет около 402 тысяч километров и "Аполлоны" преодолевали это расстояние за трое суток.

Аппараты вышли на орбиту вокруг Луны 1 и 2 января соответственно, а 17 января НАСА объявило, что по итогам конкурса среди школьников зонды получили имена "Эбб" (Ebb, прилив) и "Флоу" (Flow, отлив).

До настоящего момента оба аппарата постепенно "стягивали" орбиты, сокращая их высоту до рабочей, - 55 километров. Теперь зонды начали выполнять свою основную задачу: в течение 84 дней они будут двигаться по одинаковой орбите один за другим и с высокой точностью - до десятых долей микрона - измерять расстояние между собой, фиксируя изменения, связанные с гравитационными аномалиями.

В результате ученые смогут получить беспрецедентно точную карту гравитационного поля Луны, которая позволит им выяснить детали внутреннего строения естественного спутника Земли, а также проверить некоторые гипотезы о ее рождении и эволюции. В частности, эти данные помогут проверить теорию о существовании второй луны.

"С начала сбора научных данных научная группа может, наконец, вздохнуть с облегчением, поскольку мы делаем то, ради чего все это затевалось. Однако это время и для того, чтобы поставить кофейник на огонь, засучить рукава и начать работу", - говорит Мария Зубер (Maria Zuber), научный руководитель проекта.

Основная научная программа миссии продлится до июня. Поскольку никель-водородные аккумуляторы аппаратов относительно слабы, июньское лунное затмение может разрядить их настолько, что зонды не смогут работать дальше.

Однако если они не будут потеряны, ученые намерены добиваться у НАСА продления миссии. Во второй период ученые намерены вдвое уменьшить высоту орбиты зондов - до 25 километров, что позволит им, в частности, построить гравитационные профили самой распространенной на Луне формы рельефа - 15-километровых чашеобразных кратеров.

Общая стоимость проекта составляет около 496 миллионов долларов.

http://ria.ru/science/20120307/588048002.html

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Good news, bad news: GRAIL science underway, Venus Express suffers storm damage

Two brief mission updates. First, the good news: NASA announced yesterday that the twin GRAIL spacecraft have begun the science phase of the mission, transmitting precisely timed signals to each other in order to map the Moon's gravity field. An interesting tidbit from the press release: During the science phase, their orbit will range in altitude from 51 down to 16(!!) kilometers, and the spacecraft separation will range from 65 to 225 kilometers.

And now, the bad news. According to ESA, since the recent solar storm passed Venus, both of Venus Express' star trackers are suddenly unable to detect stars. Star trackers are used by spacecraft to precisely determine their orientation in space. They also have internal gyroscopes, but over time, small errors accumulate and the gyroscopes no longer provide correct orientation data. Star trackers use sightings on stars to periodically recalibrate their gyroscopes. (Even Opportunity does this, using a special neutral density solar filter on her Pancam to photograph the Sun and compare its position to where it was expected to be.)

Orientation is absolutely crucial information for a spacecraft; it's needed to point instruments at the planet, angle solar panels to the Sun, and aim radio signals at Earth. Some spacecraft can navigate using pictures of star fields taken by sensitive high-resolution cameras. But Venus Express does not have a high-resolution camera, and the one it has is designed to image Venus' bright clouds; I am not sure that it is sensitive enough to see stars.

According to a space.com article, there is reason to hope: the star trackers have "experienced similar glitches in the past," 5 to 10 times. But the "blindness" (as ESA described it) has never before lasted longer than 32 hours; at the time the report was issued this morning, the star trackers had been out of commission for 40.

http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00003411/

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At 10, GRACE Continues Defying, and Defining, Gravity

Just as the lead characters in the popular Broadway musical "Wicked" sing about defying gravity, the low-Earth orbiting twin spacecraft of NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) continue to defy gravity 10 years after launch, while also continuing to help define it. Along the way, they've also produced an amazing array of breakthrough science that is giving us a new understanding of changes in Earth's natural systems.

Launched from Northern Russia on March 17, 2002, on what was designed to be a three- to five-year mission, GRACE continues its task of making detailed measurements of Earth's gravity field. It does so by noting minute changes in gravitational pull caused by local changes in Earth's mass. Masses of ice, air, water and solid Earth can be moved by weather patterns, seasonal change, climate change and even tectonic events such as large earthquakes. To track these changes, GRACE uses GPS and a microwave ranging system to measure micron-scale variations in the 220-kilometer (137-mile) separation between the two spacecraft, developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

These measurements are used to produce monthly gravity maps that are more than 100 times more precise than previous models, providing the resolution necessary to characterize how Earth's gravity field varies over time and space, and over land and sea. The data have substantially improved the accuracy of techniques used by oceanographers, hydrologists, glaciologists, geologists and climate scientists.

"GRACE essentially demonstrated a new form of remote sensing for climate research that has turned out even better than we hoped," said GRACE Project Scientist Michael Watkins of JPL "We realized early on in the design of GRACE that we could measure the gravity field well enough to observe the critical indicators of climate change - sea level rise and polar ice melt."

GRACE is a joint mission with the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the German Research Center for Geosciences (GFZ), in partnership with the University of Texas at Austin. During its first decade of operations, the mission has made remarkable contributions to many scientific disciplines, expanding our knowledge of ice loss from the polar ice sheets and mountain glaciers, groundwater storage on land, sea level variations and large-scale ocean circulation, to name but a few.

GRACE also pioneered the study technique now being used by NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission, which recently began mapping the gravitational field of the moon to learn about its internal structure and composition in unprecedented detail. GRAIL data will also provide a better understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system formed and evolved.

In June 2010, NASA and DLR signed an agreement to continue GRACE through 2015-a full 10 years past the planned mission duration. Recognizing the importance of extending this long-term dataset, NASA has approved the development and launch of the GRACE Follow-On mission, also developed jointly with Germany, and planned for launch in 2017.

For more information on GRACE, visit: http://www.csr.utexas.edu/grace/ , http://www.nasa.gov/grace , and http://grace.jpl.nasa.gov/ . For more information on GRAIL, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/grail .

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-077

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Montana 4th Grade Class Names NASA's Lunar Spacecraft Twins

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GRAIL lunar gravity mission extended until December

NASA has granted an extension of the GRAIL moon mission until December, allowing scientists to complete a more definitive map of the lunar gravity field from a lower orbit, according to agency officials and researchers.

The $496 million mission was due to end in June.

The extension was confirmed by Jim Green, head of NASA's planetary science division, and Maria Zuber, the GRAIL mission's principal investigator from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The twin GRAIL satellites entered orbit around the moon Dec. 31 and Jan. 1, then began taking science observations in early March. GRAIL's baseline mission was supposed to last about three months.

Flying in formation at an average altitude of 34 miles above the moon's surface, the two GRAIL spacecraft will shift their relative range from as close as 40 miles and as far as 140 miles apart, according to NASA.

GRAIL stands for Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory. Its two satellites are nicknamed Ebb and Flow.

Researchers use radio signals between the satellites to calculate the distance between the spacecraft, which will gradually change as they fly over regions of the moon with stronger and weaker gravity.

The moon's bumpy gravity field is caused by mountains, lava flows, craters and underground masses beneath the lunar surface. Scientists say a precise gravity model of the moon will reveal its internal structure, composition and the size of a potential solid core.

The mission's scheduled end in June was timed before a solar eclipse, which would deny sunlight from each satellite's solar panels to charge batteries.

"Our initial analysis on eclipse survival was based on prudent and appropriately conservative assumptions," Zuber said in an email to Spaceflight Now. "Fortunately, both spacecraft are performing much better than those assumptions."

NASA officials said GRAIL should survive the June solar eclipse and continue functioning for a second three-month mapping cycle, which is expected to begin in September.

The average altitude of the satellites during the second mapping phase will be about 14 miles, but the spacecraft will pass as low as 4.3 miles, according to Zuber.

The GRAIL satellites, each about the size of a washing machine, would experience another eclipse in December, and analysis shows the craft would survive again.

"We made the decision to use our remaining fuel to fly as low an orbit as we could be sure to safely maintain because this scenario has the highest science value," Zuber said.

The moon's uneven gravity field presents a challenge to ground controllers planning trajectories for low-altitude lunar orbiters. The tug of lunar gravity can alter a satellite's orbit, requiring frequent rocket burns to adjust the spacecraft's path around the moon.

Gravity measurements from closer to the lunar surface should yield more precise data on its strength around the moon, giving scientists more insight into the lunar interior, Green said.

The GRAIL satellites will be crashed into the moon at the end of the mission.

Mission planners are formulating ideas for the impact scenario, evaluating the possibility of aiming the crashes so they are within the field-of-view of instruments on NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1203/21grail/

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22.03.2012 / 09:34   Миссия лунных зондов продлена


      NASA продлила до декабря 2012 года миссию лунных зондов GRAIL (Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory). Первоначальные планы предполагали завершить их работу в июне нынешнего года.

     - К.И.

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NASA GRAIL Returns First Student-Selected Moon Images

PASADENA, Calif. -- One of two NASA spacecraft orbiting the moon has beamed back the first student-requested pictures of the lunar surface from its onboard camera. Fourth grade students from the Emily Dickinson Elementary School in Bozeman, Mont., received the honor of making the first image selections by winning a nationwide competition to rename the two spacecraft.

The image was taken by the MoonKam, or Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students. Previously named Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) A and B, the twin spacecraft are now called Ebb and Flow. Both washing-machine-sized orbiters carry a small MoonKAM camera. Over 60 student–requested images were taken by the Ebb spacecraft from March 15-17 and downlinked to Earth March 20.

"MoonKAM is based on the premise that if your average picture is worth a thousand words, then a picture from lunar orbit may be worth a classroom full of engineering and science degrees," said Maria Zuber, GRAIL mission principal investigator from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. "Through MoonKAM, we have an opportunity to reach out to the next generation of scientists and engineers. It is great to see things off to such a positive start."

GRAIL is NASA's first planetary mission to carry instruments fully dedicated to education and public outreach. Students will select target areas on the lunar surface and request images to study from the GRAIL MoonKAM Mission Operations Center in San Diego.

The MoonKAM program is led by Sally Ride, America's first woman in space, and her team at Sally Ride Science in collaboration with undergraduate students at the University of California in San Diego. More than 2,700 schools spanning 52 countries are using the MoonKAM cameras.

"What might seem like just a cool activity for these kids may very well have a profound impact on their futures," Ride said. "The students really are excited about MoonKAM, and that translates into an excitement about science and engineering."

Launched in September 2011, Ebb and Flow will answer longstanding questions about the moon and give scientists a better understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system formed.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages the GRAIL mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, is home to the mission's principal investigator, Maria Zuber. GRAIL is part of the Discovery Program managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the spacecraft. The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.

To view the student-requested images, visit: http://images.moonkam.ucsd.edu

For more information about MoonKAM, visit: https://moonkam.ucsd.edu

For more information about GRAIL, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/grail

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/grail/news/grail20120322.html



This image of the far side of the lunar surface, with Earth in the background

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/grail/multimedia/pia15514.html

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/grail/multimedia/pia15515.html

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/633081main_MoonKAM_Infographic_v08.jpg
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/633082main_MoonKAM_Infographic_v08.pdf

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GRAIL передали первые фотографии Луны, сделанные по заявкам школьников

МОСКВА, 23 мар - РИА Новости. Зонды-близнецы НАСА передали на Землю первые 60 фотографий Луны, сделанных по заявкам школьников из 52 стран мира в рамках образовательного проекта, сообщает Лаборатория реактивного движения НАСА.

В рамках проекта MoonKam школьники средних классов имеют возможность заказать фотографии любого понравившегося места на Луне. Снимки выполняются камерами, установленными на борту небольших, размером со стиральную машину, спутников-близнецов GRAIL. По итогам конкурса среди школьников аппараты получили имена "Эбб" (Ebb, прилив) и "Флоу" (Flow, отлив). Зонды были запущены 10 сентября прошлого года и вышли на лунную орбиту в начале января, чтобы выполнить миссию НАСА по созданию беспрецедентно точной карты гравитационного поля Луны.

C 15 по 17 марта "Эбб" сделал более 60 фотографий и 20 марта передал их на Землю, говорится в сообщении.

"Идея проекта в том чтобы воспитать из школьников новое поколение ученых и инженеров... Если просто хорошие иллюстрации, сделанные учителем, стоят тысячи слов, то специально заказанная фотография с лунной орбиты может воодушевить ребят стать специалистами высшего класса", - сказала научный руководитель проекта, сотрудница Массачусетсткого технологического университета (США), Мария Зубер (Maria Zuber).

Проектом MoonKam, в котором участвуют уже около 2,7 тысяч школ из 52 стран мира, руководит первая американская женщина-космонавт Сэлли Райд (Sally Ride).

Помимо фотографий, школьники смогут получить видео с лунной орбиты. В результате первого тестирования камер, проведенного 19 января, зонд "Эбб" отснял 30-секундное видео отличного качества, на котором можно увидеть северный полюс Луны, 900-километровое море Восточное, кратер Дрыгальского диаметром около 150 километров с центральным пиком в форме пятиконечной звезды, а также южный полярный регион с его неровным рельефом.

Камеры на "Флоу" планируется включить позже.

Бесплатно зарегистрировавшись на сайте проекта MoonKAM, его участники смогут следить за траекторией движения GRAIL по орбите вокруг Луны, выбирать места для снимков и заказывать их в "ЦУПе" MoonKAM в университете штата Калифорния в Сан-Диего. Для того, чтобы дети могли выбрать интересующий их участок, на сайте будет доступна интерактивная карта Луны, составленная по снимкам других лунных аппаратов.

После того, как зонд пройдет выбранное место и сделает фотографии, они будут опубликованы в галерее на сайте, и школьники смогут использовать их, например, для своих научных и художественных проектов.

Два аппарата GRAIL в течение 82 дней будут лететь друг за другом на высоте около 55 километров по полярной орбите вокруг Луны. Измеряя расстояние между аппаратами, которое будет меняться по мере того, как они проходят лунные гравитационные аномалии, ученые построят гравитационную карту спутника и получат представление о внутреннем строении Луны. Общая стоимость миссии составляет 496 миллионов долларов.

http://ria.ru/science/20120323/603654706.html

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Flying Formation - Around the Moon at 3,600 MPH

The act of two or more aircraft flying together in a disciplined, synchronized manner is one of the cornerstones of military aviation, as well as just about any organized air show. But as amazing as the U.S. Navy's elite Blue Angels or the U.S. Air Force's Thunderbirds are to behold, they remain essentially landlocked, anchored if you will, to our planet and its tenuous atmosphere. What if you could take the level of precision of these great aviators to, say, the moon?

"Our job is to ensure our two GRAIL spacecraft are flying a very, very accurate trail formation in lunar orbit," said David Lehman, GRAIL project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "We need to do this so our scientists can get the data they need."

Essentially, trail formation means one aircraft (or spacecraft in this case), follows directly behind the other. Ebb and Flow, the twins of NASA's GRAIL (Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory) mission, are by no means the first to synch up altitude and "air" speed while zipping over the craters, mountains, hills and rills of Earth's natural satellite. That honor goes to the crew of Apollo 10, who in May 1969 performed a dress rehearsal for the first lunar landing. But as accurate as the astronauts aboard lunar module "Snoopy" and command module "Charlie Brown" were in their piloting, it is hard to imagine they could keep as exacting a position as Ebb and Flow. "It is an apples and oranges comparison," said Lehman. "Lunar formation in Apollo was about getting a crew to the lunar surface, returning to lunar orbit and docking, so they could get back safely to Earth. For GRAIL, the formation flying is about the science, and that is why we have to make our measurements so precisely."

As the GRAIL twins fly over areas of greater and lesser gravity at 3,600 mph (5,800 kilometers per hour), surface features such as mountains and craters, and masses hidden beneath the lunar surface, can influence the distance between the two spacecraft ever so slightly.

How slight a distance change can be measured by the science instrument beaming invisible microwaves back and forth between Ebb and Flow?

How about one-tenth of one micron? Another way to put it is that the GRAIL twins can detect a change in their position down to one half of a human hair (0.000004 inches, or 0.00001 centimeters). For those of you who are hematologists or vampires (we are not judging here), any change in separation between the two twins greater than one half of a red corpuscle will be duly noted aboard the spacecraft's memory chips for later downlinking to Earth. Working together, Ebb and Flow will make these measurements while flying over the entirety of the lunar surface.

This begs the question, why would scientists care about a change of distance between two spacecraft as infinitesimal as half a red corpuscle a quarter million miles from Earth?

"Mighty oaks from little acorns grow – even in lunar orbit," said Maria Zuber, principal investigator of the GRAIL mission from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. "From the data collected during these minute distance changes between spacecraft, we will be able to generate an incredibly high-resolution map of the moon's gravitational field. From that, we will be able to understand what goes on below the lunar surface in unprecedented detail, which will in turn increase our knowledge of how Earth and its rocky neighbors in the inner solar system developed into the diverse worlds we see today."

Getting the GRAIL twins into a hyper-accurate formation from a quarter million miles away gave the team quite a challenge. Launched together on Sept. 10, 2011, Ebb and Flow went their separate ways soon after entering space. Three-and-a-half months and 2.5 million miles (4 million kilometers) later, Ebb entered lunar orbit. Flow followed the next day (New Year's Day 2012).

"Being in lunar orbit is one thing, being in the right lunar orbit for science can be something else entirely," said Joe Beerer, GRAIL's mission manager from JPL. "The twins initial orbit carried them as close to the lunar surface as 56 miles (90 kilometers) and as far out as 5,197 miles (8,363 kilometers), and each revolution took approximately 11.5 hours to complete. They had to go from that to a science orbit of 15 by 53 miles (24.5 by 86 kilometers) and took all of 114 minutes to complete."

To reduce and refine Ebb and Flow's orbits efficiently and precisely required the GRAIL team to plan and execute a series of trajectory modification burns for each spacecraft. And each maneuver had to be just right.

"Because each one of these maneuvers was so important, we did a lot of planning and testing for each," said Beerer. "Over eight weeks, we did nine maneuvers with Ebb and 10 with Flow to establish the science formation. We would literally be watching our screens for a signal telling us about an Ebb rocket burn, then go into a meeting about the next burn for Flow. Our schedule was very full."

Today, the calendar for GRAIL's flight team remains a busy one with the day-to-day operations of keeping NASA's lunar twins in synch. But as busy as the team gets, they still have time to peer skyward.

"Next time you look up and see the moon, you might want to take a second and think about our two little spacecraft flying formation, zooming from pole to pole at 3,600 mph," said Lehman. "They're up there, working together, flying together, getting the data our scientists need. As far as I'm concerned, they're putting on quite a show."

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages the GRAIL mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, is home to the mission's principal investigator, Maria Zuber. The GRAIL mission is part of the Discovery Program managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the spacecraft. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

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

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/grail/news/grail20120327.html

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Много-много фото  

http://images.moonkam.ucsd.edu/main.php
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=4826&st=30









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NASA has granted an extension of the GRAIL moon mission until December 2012, allowing scientists to complete a more definitive map of the lunar gravity field from a lower orbit, according to agency officials and researchers.

The $496 million mission was due to end in June.

The extension was confirmed by Jim Green, head of NASA's planetary science division, and Maria Zuber, the GRAIL mission's principal investigator from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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http://www.spaceflight101.com/grail-mission-design-timeline.html