GRAIL: Ebb and Flow

The pupils in NASA’s competition winning class from Montana, USA, with their teacher Nina DiMauro. These pupils will be able to choose what pictures should be taken first by the MoonKam that is fitted to each of the two GRAIL mission probes.
Credit: DR

Since the beginning of the year, two of NASA’s probes have been orbiting the Moon in order to draw up an accurate map of the variations in its gravitational field. The American Space Agency launched a competition to give each of GRAIL-A and GRAIL-B a name. More than 900 schools representing 11,000 pupils and students took part. The winning class is that of teacher Nina DiMauro at the Emily Dickinson School in Bozeman, Montana. Their proposition? That the probes be named according to one of the biggest influences that our natural satellite has on our Earth, namely the tides. Consequently, GRAIL-A and GRAIL-B are now called Ebb (the receding tide) and Flow (the rising tide).

The result presented on the GRAIL mission MoonKam website

The GRAIL mission explained on Enjoy Space

Publié le 18 janvier 2012

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