LOS ANGELES (AP) _ NASA kicked off the new year with a pair of probes circling the moon in the latest mission to understand how Earth's closest neighbor formed.
There was no champagne popping in the mission control room at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory when the Grail spacecraft arrived back-to-back over the New Year's weekend, but several scientists and engineers celebrated by blowing noisemakers.
``It's a really good feeling to have not one but two of our twins in orbit,'' project manager David Lehman said Sunday after the mission was deemed successful.
The action began on New Year's Eve when Grail-A swung over the south pole, fired its engine and braked into orbit around the moon. Not to be outdone, its twin Grail-B executed the same maneuvers on New Year's Day.
The arrivals capped a roundabout journey spanning 3 1/2 months and covering 2 1/2 million miles (4.02 million kilometers).
The moon has long been an object of fascination. Galileo spotted mountains and craters when he peered at it through a telescope. Poets and songwriters looked to the moon as a muse.
Even governments wanted a piece of the moon. Since the dawn of the Space Age, more than 100 missions launched by the United States, Soviet Union, Japan, China and India have targeted Earth's companion. NASA flew six Apollo missions that landed twelve men on the lunar surface and brought back more than 800 pounds (362.3 kilograms) of rock and soil samples.
Despite all the attention, the moon remains mysterious. Mission chief scientist Maria Zuber of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said researchers know more about Mars, which is farther away from the Earth, than the moon.
One of the enduring puzzles is its lopsided shape with the far side more hilly than the side that Earth sees. Research published earlier this year suggested that our planet once had two moons that crashed early in the solar system's history and created the moon that graces the sky today.
Scientists expect to learn more about how the celestial body formed using Grail's gravity measurements that will indicate what's below the surface.
Since the washing machine-size Grail probes _ short for Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory _ were squeezed on a small rocket to save on costs, it lengthened the trip and took them 30 times longer to reach the moon than the Apollo astronauts, who took a direct three-day flight.
Previous spacecraft have attempted to study the moon's gravity _ about one-sixth Earth's pull _ with mixed success. Grail was expected to give scientists the most detailed maps of the moon's uneven gravitational field and insight into its interior down to the core.
Data collection won't begin until March after the near-identical spacecraft refine their positions and are circling just 34 miles (54.72 kilometers) above the surface. While scientists focus on gravity, middle school students will get the chance to take their own pictures of the moon using cameras aboard the probes as part of a project headed by Sally Ride, the first American woman in space.
There's already chatter about trying to extend the $496 million mission, which was slated to end before the partial lunar eclipse in June.
<한글기사>
美 `쌍둥이 달 탐사위성' 2호 궤도진입
지난해 9월 발사된 미 항공 우주국(NASA)의 쌍둥이 달 중력장 탐사위성 중 두 번째 위성이 새해 첫날 달 궤도를 돌기 시작했다.
나사는 달 탐사위성 그레일(GRAIL.Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory) B호가 418만여km의 여행 끝에 1일(현지시간) 달 궤도에 진입했다고 밝혔다.
앞서 그레일 A호는 하루 앞선 지난달 31일 궤도 진입에 성공한 바 있다.
세탁기 크기의 두 위성은 200㎞ 간격을 유지한 채 고도 55㎞의 궤도를 돌고 있다. 이들 위성은 3월부터 두 달 동안 달 중력장 지도 작성에 필요한 자료를 수집하 게 된다.
나사는 그레일 B호가 궤도진입에 성공했다는 보고를 받은 뒤 트위터를 통해 "모든 것이 좋아 보인다"며 "대단한 2012년이 될 것"이라고 밝혔다.
이번 달 탐사위성은 달의 내부를 조사함으로써 종전의 것보다 100∼1천배 정확한 중력장 지도를 만들게 될 것으로 기대된다. 중력장은 중력이 영향을 미치는 공간 을 의미한다.
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