Lunar Impact Site Named After Sally Ride   
       
   Dec. 18, 2012: NASA has named the site where twin gravity probes hit the Moon   
   yesterday in honor of the late astronaut, Sally K. Ride, who was America's   
   first woman in space and a member of the probes' mission team.   
       
   On Dec. 14th, Ebb and Flow, the two spacecraft of NASA's GRAIL (Gravity   
   Recovery and Interior Laboratory) mission, were commanded to descend into a   
   lower orbit and target a mountain near the Moon's north pole. The   
   formation-flying duo hit the lunar surface as planned at 5:28:51 p.m. EST and   
   5:29:21 p.m. EST on Dec. 17th at a speed of 3,760 mph. The location of the   
   Sally K. Ride Impact Site is on the southern face of an approximately 1.5   
   mile-tall mountain near a crater named Goldschmidt.   
       
   "Sally Ride worked tirelessly throughout her life to remind all of us,   
   especially girls, to keep questioning and learning," said Sen. Barbara   
   Mikulski of Maryland. "Today her passion for making students part of NASA's   
   science is honored by naming the impact site for her."   
       
   http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/714380main_pia16492_20121217-full.jpg   
       
   The final flight plan for NASA's twin GRAIL spacecraft ends with an impact at   
   a mountain near the lunar north pole. The impact site is named for America's   
   first woman in space, Dr. Sally Ride, whose education and public outreach   
   program lead the GRAIL mission's MoonKAM effort. Image credit: N   
   SA/JPL-Caltech/GSFC/ASU /Sally Ride Science   
   The impact marked a successful end to the GRAIL mission, which was NASA's   
   first planetary mission to carry cameras fully dedicated to education and   
   public outreach. Ride, who died in July after a 17-month battle with   
   pancreatic cancer, led GRAIL's MoonKAM (Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle   
   School Students) Program through her company, Sally Ride Science, in San Diego.   
       
   Along with its primary science instrument, each spacecraft carried a MoonKAM   
   camera that took more than 115,000 total images of the lunar surface. Imaging   
   targets were proposed by middle school students from across the country and   
   the resulting images returned for them to study. The names of the spacecraft   
   were selected by Ride and the mission team from student submissions in a   
   nationwide contest.   
       
   "Sally was all about getting the job done, whether it be in exploring space,   
   inspiring the next generation, or helping make the GRAIL mission the   
   resounding success it is today," said GRAIL principal investigator Maria Zuber   
   of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "We are proud we can honor Sally   
   Ride's contributions by naming this corner of the Moon after her."   
       
   http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/grail/multimedia/zuber2.html   
       
   This image shows Sally Ride, America's first woman in space, who was also part   
   of NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission.     
   Image credit: Sally Ride Science Fifty minutes prior to impact, the spacecraft   
   fired their engines until the propellant was depleted. The maneuver was   
   designed to determine precisely the amount of fuel remaining in the tanks.   
   This will help NASA engineers validate computer models to improve predictions   
   of fuel needs for future missions.   
       
   "Ebb fired its engines for 4 minutes, 3 seconds and Flow fired its for 5   
   minutes, 7 seconds," said GRAIL project manager David Lehman of NASA's Jet   
   Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. "It was one final important   
   set of data from a mission that was filled with great science and engineering   
   data."   
       
   The mission team deduced that much each spacecraft was broken up during the   
   impacts. Most of what remains probably is buried in shallow craters. The   
   craters' size may be determined when NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter   
   returns images of the area in several weeks.   
       
   Launched in September 2011, Ebb and Flow had been orbiting the moon since Jan.   
   1, 2012. The probes intentionally were sent into the lunar surface because   
   they did not have sufficient altitude or fuel to continue science operations.   
   Their successful prime and extended science missions generated the highest   
   resolution gravity field map of any celestial body. The map will provide a   
   better understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system   
   formed and evolved.   
       
   "We will miss our lunar twins, but the scientists tell me it will take years   
   to analyze all the great data they got, and that is why we came to the moon in   
   the first place," Lehman said. "So long, Ebb and Flow, and we thank you."   
       
       
   Production editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA   
       
   More Information   
   JPL manages the GRAIL mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in   
   Washington. The mission is part of the Discovery Program managed at NASA's   
   Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Lockheed Martin Space Systems   
   in Denver built the spacecraft. JPL is a division of the California Institute   
   of Technology in Pasadena.   
       
   For more information about GRAIL, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/grail .   
       
       
   Regards,   
       
   Roger   
      
   --- D'Bridge 3.82   
    * Origin: NCS BBS (1:3828/7)