posted 10-04-2011 08:47 AM               

NASA Invites Students To Name Moon-Bound Spacecraft

NASA has a class assignment for U.S. students: help the agency give the twin spacecraft headed to orbit around the moon new names.

The naming contest is open to students in kindergarten through 12th grade at schools in the United States. Entries must be submitted by teachers using an online entry form. Length of submissions can range from a short paragraph to a 500-word essay. The entry deadline is Nov. 11.

Above: Artist concept of GRAIL mission.

The solar-powered Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) A and GRAIL-B spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. on Sept. 10 to begin a three-and-a-half-month journey to the moon. GRAIL will create a gravity map of the moon using two spacecraft that orbit at very precise distances. The mission will enable scientists to learn about the moon's internal structure and composition, and give scientists a better understanding of its origin. Accurate knowledge of the moon's gravity also could be used to help choose future landing sites.

"A NASA mission to the moon is one of the reasons why I am a scientist today," said GRAIL Principal Investigator Maria Zuber from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge. "My hope is that GRAIL motivates young people today towards careers in science, math and technology. Getting involved with naming our two GRAIL spacecraft could inspire their interest not only in space exploration but in the sciences, and that's a good thing."

Zuber and former astronaut Sally Ride of Sally Ride Science in San Diego will chair the final round of judging. Sally Ride Science is the lead for GRAIL's MoonKAM program, which enables students to task cameras aboard the two GRAIL spacecraft to take close-up views of the lunar surface.

posted 01-12-2012 05:16 PM               

NASA and Students to Announce New Names for Twin Lunar Probes

NASA will host a news conference at 1 p.m. EST, Tuesday, Jan. 17, to announce the names selected from a nationwide student contest for twin spacecraft that will study the moon in unprecedented detail.

Nine hundred schools and more than 11,000 students from 45 states, as well as Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia, participated in the contest that began in October 2011.

The agency's twin Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL A/B) spacecraft successfully achieved lunar orbit on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, respectively. The status of the spacecraft and upcoming plans for science operations also will be discussed.

NASA Television and the agency's website will broadcast the live event.

The participants are:

• John Grunsfeld, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington
  
• Leland Melvin, associate administrator for Education, NASA Headquarters
  
• Maria Zuber, GRAIL principal investigator, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
  
• Sally Ride, president and CEO, Sally Ride Science, San Diego
  
• Teacher and students submitting the selected names

The event will be carried on Ustream, with a live chat box available.

posted 01-17-2012 12:15 PM               

Students name NASA's twin moon probes 'Ebb' and 'Flow'

NASA's twin, gravity-mapping moon probes received new names Tuesday (Jan. 17), reflecting their mission to study the changing pull of Earth's natural satellite.

Now to be called "Ebb" and "Flow," the tandem Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory, or GRAIL, spacecraft arrived in lunar orbit on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day referred to simply "A" and "B". Their new names were offered by fourth grade students in Bozeman, Mont., who were chosen as the winners of NASA's naming contest.

"The 28 students of Ms. Nina DiMauro's class at Emily Dickinson Elementary School have really hit the nail on the head," said Maria Zuber, who as principal investigator leads the GRAIL probes' mission from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "We were really impressed that the students drew their inspiration by researching GRAIL and its goal of measuring gravity."

"Ebb and Flow truly capture the spirit and excitement of our mission," Zuber said...