Tue, Oct 04, 2011
GRAIL-A And -B Need Their Own Identities
NASA has a class assignment for U.S. students: help the agency
give the twin spacecraft headed to orbit around the moon new
names.
NASA Image
The naming contest is open to students in kindergarten through
12th grade at schools in the United States. Entries must be
submitted by teachers using an online entry form. Length of
submissions can range from a short paragraph to a 500-word essay.
The entry deadline is Nov. 11.
NASA's solar-powered Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory
(GRAIL)-A and GRAIL-B spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air
Force Station, FL. on Sept. 10 to begin a three-and-a-half-month
journey to the moon. GRAIL will create a gravity map of the moon
using two spacecraft that orbit at very precise distances. The
mission will enable scientists to learn about the moon's internal
structure and composition, and give scientists a better
understanding of its origin. Accurate knowledge of the moon's
gravity also could be used to help choose future landing sites.
"A NASA mission to the moon is one of the reasons why I am a
scientist today," said GRAIL Principal Investigator Maria Zuber
from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. "My
hope is that GRAIL motivates young people today towards careers in
science, math and technology. Getting involved with naming our two
GRAIL spacecraft could inspire their interest not only in space
exploration but in the sciences, and that's a good thing."
Zuber and former astronaut Sally Ride of Sally Ride Science in
San Diego will chair the final round of judging. Sally Ride Science
is the lead for GRAIL's MoonKAM program, which enables students to
task cameras aboard the two GRAIL spacecraft to take close-up views
of the lunar surface.
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