NASA hosts Dec. 13 Telecon on Twin Probes' Mission-Ending Moon Impact
Artist concept of GRAIL mission. Grail will fly twin spacecraft in tandem orbits around the moon to measure its gravity field in unprecedented detail. Image credit: NASA/JPL
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December 10, 2012
PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA hosts a media teleconference at 10:30 a.m. PST (1:30 p.m. EST) Thursday, Dec. 13, to provide an overview of events leading up to twin spacecraft being commanded to impact the moon's surface on Dec. 17 at approximately 2:28 p.m. PST (5:28 p.m. EST).
NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission, whose two washing machine-sized probes were named Ebb and Flow by elementary school students in Bozeman, Mont., via a nationwide contest, have successfully completed their prime missions and have only days to go on their extended mission science collection. As planned, the duo is running low on fuel. They have been orbiting the moon since New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, respectively, giving scientists unprecedented detail about the moon's internal structure and composition.
Visuals will be available at the start of the event at: http://bit.ly/grail20121213 .
Audio and visuals of the event will be streamed live online at:
http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio and http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2 .
For more information about the mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/grail
DC Agle 818-393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
agle@jpl.nasa.gov
Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov
2012-391b
