NASA’s two Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory, or GRAIL, spacecraft have completed all assembly and testing prior to shipment to Florida.The GRAIL mission is scheduled for launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida late this summer. The GRAIL-A and GRAIL-B spacecraft will fly in tandem orbits around Earth’s moon for several months to measure its gravity field in unprecedented detail. The mission also will answer longstanding questions about the moon and provide scientists with a better understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system formed.
To read more about the GRAIL mission, go to the GRAIL article in NEON.
This story directly relates to On the Moon Educator’s Guide: On Target and Feel the Heat content modules, available on the NASA Explorer Schools Virtual Campus.
GRAIL also carries MoonKAM, a unique and exciting activity for middle school students, hosted by Sally Ride Science. Read the NES Teachers Corner article about getting your students involved in MoonKam.
Link to the NES Virtual Campus home page.