To the moon
Today’s expected launch of NASA’s Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) twin spacecraft, a carefully choreographed mission to precisely map the moon’s gravitational field, could help scientists understand fundamental questions about the moon’s composition, internal structure and evolution.GRAIL’s principal investigator — Maria Zuber, the Earle A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics and Planetary Science at MIT — becomes not only the first MIT professor to lead a NASA mission, but also the first woman to lead a planetary spacecraft mission. Following today’s launch of the twin GRAIL spacecraft and a four-month journey, GRAIL-A is scheduled to enter orbit around the moon Dec. 31; GRAIL-B will enter lunar orbit the following day. GRAIL’s 90-day scientific mapping mission will begin in March 2012. “Technologically, it is blazing the trail for other planetary missions,” says Zuber, the head of MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. “Using dual spacecraft in tight-formation flight, doing...