WASHINGTON — A camera aboard one of NASA’s twin Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) lunar spacecraft has returned its first unique view of the far side of the moon. MoonKAM, or Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students, will be used by students nationwide to select lunar images for study. GRAIL consists of two identical spacecraft, recently named Ebb and Flow, each of which is equipped with a MoonKam. The images were taken as part of a test of Ebb’s MoonKam on Jan. 19. The GRAIL project plans to test the MoonKAM aboard Flow at a later date.
In the video, the north pole of the moon is visible at the top of the screen as the spacecraft flies toward the lunar south pole. One of the first prominent geological features seen on the lower third of the moon is the Mare Orientale, a 560 mile-wide (900 kilometer) impact basin that straddles both the moon’s near and far side. The clip ends with rugged terrain just short of the lunar south pole. To the left of center, near the bottom of the screen, is the 93 mile-wide (149 kilometer) Drygalski crater with a distinctive star-shaped formation in the middle. The formation is a central peak, created many billions of years ago by a comet or asteroid impact.
Did you know you can visit the Moon at Space Center Houston? Check out our massive collection of spacecraft and space memorabilia in our world renowned Starship Gallery. This impressive collection includes a “walk through” trainer for Skylab, the world’s largest collection of Moon rocks (outside of NASA), and a life diorama of the lunar surface! Save $5 off regular admission when you buy tickets online. Do something amazing!
]]>For three days (Jan 18-20) guests on the NEW Discount Tire NASA Tram Tour will once again witness history in the making! The Multi-Mission Space Exploration Vehicle (MMSEV) is undergoing a three day “shakedown” as astronaut Alvin Drew and Geologist Jose M. Hurtado camp out inside.
On Friday, Jan. 20th, the public will be able to participate in a “Twitterview” by asking the crew questions about their three day mission! The event will start at 4:15pm (CST). Questions should be directed to @Desert_RATS with a #SVE hashtag.
Don’t miss your chance to see the mission live in person! The virtual asteroid mission can be seen by the public on our NEW NASA Tour! Details.
(Via NASA PAO)
Astronaut Al Drew and geologist Jose M. Hurtado of the University of Texas in El Paso will spend three days and two nights living inside the Space Exploration Vehicle, or SEV’s, cabin.
The public is invited to ask the crew questions via Twitter @Desert_RATS for a Twitterview the crew will participate in at 4:15 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 20. Questions should be marked #SEV. RATS stands for Research and Technology Studies.
The SEV will be placed on an air-bearing floor to allow it to virtually float, much the way a hockey puck floats on an air hockey table. This will allow the crew to see how the SEV would handle in a microgravity environment and evaluate the view from the vehicle’s windows.
For more information about the future of crewed spaceflight, check out the NEW Discount Tire NASA Tram Tour! Peek into advanced NASA labs and see the spaceships of tomorrow! Save $5 off admission when you buy tickets online!
]]>(Via NASA PAO)
NASA’s Research and Technology Studies (RATS) team will conduct its 2012 events in two phases. The first phase is further separated into two, three-day parts, conducted at Johnson Space Center’s (JSC) Building 9.
NASA’s Research and Technology Studies (RATS) team will conduct its 2012 events in two phases. The first phase is further separated into two, three-day parts, conducted at Johnson Space Center’s (JSC) Building 9.
Phase 1 will take place Dec. 13-15, 2011, and Jan. 18-20, 2012. This phase will focus on determining functionality and habitability of the Multi-Mission Space Exploration Vehicle (MMSEV). The MMSEV has a flexible architecture, allowing it to rove on a planetary surface atop a wheeled chassis, or fly in space using advanced in-space propulsion systems.
For three days and two nights during the Dec. and Jan. simulations, the two-person crews will eat, sleep, and exercise in the MMSEV cabin, housed in JSC Building 9. Throughout the day, they will trade responsibilities as EVA (extravehicular activity) and IV (intra-vehicular) crewmembers. During the EVAs, the crews will egress the vehicle through the suitports, then perform a variety of simulations that future crews could potentially conduct on a mission to a near-Earth asteroid.
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The image was taken on Nov. 7 at 11:45 a.m. PST (2:45 p.m. EST/1945 UTC), when the asteroid was approximately 860,000 miles (1.38 million kilometers) away from Earth. Tracking of the aircraft carrier-sized asteroid began at Goldstone at 9:30 a.m. PDT on Nov. 4 with the 230-foot-wide (70-meter) antenna and lasted about two hours, with an additional four hours of tracking planned each day from Nov. 6 - 10. Credit: NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
According to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, this isn’t our first rendezvous with YU55:
The asteroid will safely fly past our planet slightly closer than the moon’s orbit on Nov. 8. The last time a space rock this large came as close to Earth was in 1976, although astronomers did not know about the flyby at the time. The next known approach of an asteroid this size will be in 2028.
Unfortunately, we won’t even be able to see it with the naked eye. In fact, it will take some pretty powerful telescopes to even see it as it goes by – which NASA Fully intends to do! This asteroid gives us a terrific opportunity to learn more about the nature of these cosmological marvels and perhaps give us some insight to the early development of Earth!
It will also provide amazing data that could someday be used to send humans out to an asteroid. Does that sound even further out that Asteroid 2005 YU55? Believe it or not, NASA is developing and testing the vehicles of tomorrow right now! Everyday our guests have the opportunity to see history in the making on the NASA Tram tour.
Check out this fascinating glimpse at how such a mission might be carried out:
For more information about the future of Crewed Spaceflight and where it might take us, check out the NEW Discount Tire NASA Tram Tour! Peek into advanced NASA labs and see the spaceships of tomorrow! Save $5 off admission when you buy tickets online!
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If a paper published recently in the journal Nature* is right, two moons once graced our night skies. The proposition has not been proven, but has drawn widespread attention.
“It’s an intriguing idea,” says David Smith, GRAIL’s deputy principal investigator at MIT. “And it would be a way to explain one of the great perplexities of the Earth-Moon system – the Moon’s strangely asymmetrical nature. Its near and far sides are substantially different.”
The Moon’s near side, facing us, is dominated by vast smooth ‘seas’ of ancient hardened lava. In contrast, the far side is marked by mountainous highlands. Researchers have long struggled to account for the differences, and the “two moon” theory introduced by Martin Jutzi and Erik Asphaug of the University of California at Santa Cruz is the latest attempt.
Scientists agree that when a Mars-sized object crashed into our planet about 4 billion years ago, the resulting debris cloud coalesced to form the Moon. Jutzi and Asphaug posit that the debris cloud actually formed two moons. A second, smaller chunk of debris landed in just the right orbit to lead or follow the bigger Moon around Earth.
“Normally, such moons accrete into a single body shortly after formation,” explains Smith. “But the new theory proposes that the second moon ended up at one of the Lagrange points in the Earth-Moon system.”
Lagrange points are a bit like gravitational fly traps. They can hold an object for a long time–but not necessarily forever. The second moon eventually worked its way out and collided with its bigger sister. The collision occurred at such a low velocity that the impact did not form a crater. Instead, the smaller moon ‘went splat,’ forming the contemporary far side highlands.
In short, the lunar highlands are the lost moon’s remains
Read the Full article at science.nasa.gov
For more information about our cosmic neighbor’s composition, visit the Starship Gallery at Space Center Houston. Home to the world’s largest collection of Moon rocks on public display, including a 1.5 billion year old lunar touchstone! Save $5 off admission when you buy tickets online!
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