NASA's Moon-bound Ebb spacecraft has returned its first unique view of the far side of the Moon. The view was acquired by a camera, known as MoonKAM, acronym for Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students, aboard Ebb. MoonKAM will be used by students across the USA, to select images of the lunar surface for study.
NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission to the Moon consists of two identical spacecraft, 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 19 January 2012. The GRAIL team plans to test Flow’s MoonKAM at a later date.
Images of Ebb have been used to produce a 30-second movie of the Moon, showing Ebb’s flight toward the lunar south pole. The movie begins by a view of the north pole of the Moon, at top of the screen. To watch this video clip, please visit the following link.
http://go.nasa.gov/zZXAPs
The twins Ebb and Flow successfully entered Moon orbit this past New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Previously known as GRAIL-A and GRAIL-B, the washing machine-sized spacecraft received their new names from fourth grade students at the Emily Dickinson Elementary School, through a student naming contest.
Thousands of fourth- to eighth-grade students will select target areas on the lunar surface and send requests to the GRAIL MoonKAM Mission Operations Center. Photos of the target areas will be acquired by Ebb and Flow for students to study. The MoonKAM program is led by Sally Ride, the first American woman in space.
Launched in September 2011, Ebb and Flow periodically perform trajectory adjustments that, over time, will lower their orbits to near-circular ones with an altitude of about 55 km. The GRAIL mission is expected to yield answers to longstanding questions about the Moon, and give scientists a better understanding of how Earth and the neighboring rocky planets in the Solar System formed.
References
NASA
www.nasa.gov/
Wikipedia
Further Reading
Grail Mission Website
http://www.nasa.gov/grail