GRAIL A and B have arrived

NASA’s two twin GRAIL (Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory) probes went into orbit around the Moon one after another right on schedule. GRAIL-A “set the ball rolling” on 31 December 2011 by momentarily firing a small thruster at 22:21 UT (Universal Time, add an hour for France) so as to voluntarily be “imprisoned” by the lunar gravitational field. The manoeuvre was successfully completed at 23:00. The following day, on 1 January 2012, GRAIL-B carried out the same operation at 23:43. From now on, and during the weeks to come, the two probes which are the size of washing machines will further use their thrusters to adjust their orbit around our natural satellite. The aim is to study the variations in the Moon’s gravitational field so as to get a better understanding of its structure (see this Enjoy Space article).

Published on 3 January 2012

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