LIVE NASA JPL GRAIL, Launch Coverage from Cape Canaveral

GRAIL Launch Coverage from Cape Canaveral Starts at 5 am PDT on Saturday, Sept. 10

The Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission will create the most accurate gravitational map of the Moon to date, improving our knowledge of near-side gravity by 100 times and of far-side gravity by 1000 times. The high-resolution gravitational field, especially when combined with a comparable-resolution topographical field, will enable scientists to deduce the Moon's interior structure and composition, and to gain insights into its thermal evolution--that is, the history of the Moon's heating and cooling, which opens the door to understanding its origin and development. Accurate knowledge of the gravity will also be an invaluable navigational aid to future lunar spacecraft. Ultimately, the information contributed by the GRAIL mission will increase our knowledge of how Earth and its rocky neighbors in the inner solar system developed into the diverse worlds we see today. Scheduled to launch in late 2011, GRAIL is a mission in NASA's Discovery Program of solar system investigations. GRAIL will begin its work at the Moon in 2012. Maria Zuber of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass., is the mission Principal Investigator. In the course of the mission, GRAIL will conduct two important firsts. This will be the first time any space agency has attempted the complex set of maneuvers required to place two robotic spacecraft into the same precise orbit around a planetary body other than Earth so that they can fly in formation. And it will also provide a unique opportunity for a NASA planetary mission to carry MoonKam--an imager whose photographic targets will be chosen by middle school students under the auspices of Sally Ride Science.

solarsystem.nasa.gov...

Team Targets Second Launch Window Today
Sat, 10 Sep 2011 02:24:23 PM GMT+0200

The countdown clock is still holding at the T-4 minute mark after reports that the upper-level winds are "red" for launch. The launch team is now targeting today's second opportunity for liftoff at 9:08:52 a.m. EDT. They will continue to receive wind data.

NASA's twin GRAIL spacecraft are scheduled to begin their mission to the moon as they liftoff from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Launch Complex 17B in Florida aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II heavy rocket.

Follow live launch coverage online through NASA's Launch Blog at www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/grail/launch/grail_blog.html and on NASA TV at www.nasa.gov/ntv.

GRAIL's primary science objectives are to determine the structure of the lunar interior, from crust to core, and to advance understanding of the thermal evolution of the moon.


www.jpl.nasa.gov...

LIVE launch here ..

www.ustream.tv...

Thank you!

I forgot about it, looks like i'm just in time.
hoping everything goes ok.

T- 4:00 and holding green for wind standing by for launch go

All green ..

Let's go ro0ll again ..




Any second start T - 4:00 min ..

any idea how powerful that camera is?
wouldnt mind seeing more than a pixel of the moon landing sites

Release of the hold in 30 seconds, well now 20...

4 min and counting all stations go, green for weather.

T - 4:00 start .. o0

The Delta II Heavy has passed through the areas of maximum dynamic pressure. First six boosters burned out and separated. The three other boosters are burning.

The Delta II and GRAIL are going Mach 15, more than 11,000 mph.

awesome launch, that thing moves!

It was, perfect quick and beautiful takeoff ..

Bravo NASA and thanks for extra live stream ..

Originally posted by Dalke07
It was, perfect quick and beautiful takeoff ..

Bravo NASA and thanks for extra live stream ..

edit on 10-9-2011 by Dalke07 because: (no reason given)

I missed it!!! But at the ustream link provided in the OP has a chat box where NASA was conversing with people about why it will take it 3 months to reach the moon. Something about taking the scenic route and saving fuel.

And no, he didn't mean 3 months to get the two into synchronized orbit, either. He meant get to the moon. Weird.

I read that students will be able to request pictures of certain areas of the moon.....hmmmm...I wonder if the apollo sites will come up ? the end of the hoax debate may be just weeks away

I know, it was never a debate really, but this will likely end it for 90% of the hoaxers

Originally posted by new_here
I missed it!!! But at the ustream link provided in the OP has a chat box where NASA was conversing with people about why it will take it 3 months to reach the moon. Something about taking the scenic route and saving fuel.

And no, he didn't mean 3 months to get the two into synchronized orbit, either. He meant get to the moon. Weird.

GRAIL is using a low-energy trans-lunar cruise, by using the Sun-Earth Lagrange point L1. The GRAIL probes are rather small and they don't carry a lot of propellant, so using this method saves them from having to use too much of it. There is a diagram of the orbit shown in this video here:

Scroll to 16:47

Originally posted by jazzguy
any idea how powerful that camera is?
wouldnt mind seeing more than a pixel of the moon landing sites

The mission objectives for GRAIL are not about mapping the Moon with camera's. That's the goal of the LRO. The MoonKam's are for educational purposes for middle school students. So they're quite likely to be low resolution.

Here's a simple little demo to test your own settings for a launch rendezvous.

Appolz op but a bump cause i totaly screwed up my post, But the jist is why take 3 months to get to the moon..??

2nd ATS aware..

reply to post by foxhoundone


Flying to the moon takes about three days, but all that speed comes with a heavy price in fuel. The GRAIL spacecrafts will demonstrate an alternative type of celestial navigation that takes advantage of one of several naturally occurring locations in space where orbital motion and gravitational forces balance out. These locations are called Lagrange points.

Staged from Lagrange Point 1, or L1, which is located 1.5 million kilometers (932,0570 miles) inside Earth's orbit, part way between the sun and the Earth, the GRAIL satellites will take three to four months to reach the moon. The satellites will arrive with less relative speed than spacecraft making the trip in three days, which means less fuel will be needed to brake and drop into lunar orbit coming from L1. It greatly simplifies the mission.

The extra time in space also gives the GRAIL spacecraft time to vent gases that could impact their science measurements. To map the moon's gravity, scientists will be making measurements as precise as a couple of tenths of a micron per second. A micron is about the size of a red blood cell.

reply to post by Illustronic

Nothing to do with comet Elin then?? ..I read the data too and it could be a red herring to stop to much interest being shown, And the Grail delivery system does look like an ICBM, I mean all that monies spent on this system to map the interior of the moon ?. Well thought i put it out there just to see thanks for your data illustronic