Two Satellites To Crash Into Luna

Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (twin spacecraft) will be given their final orders on Monday, 12/17/12. They will be crashed into a mountain-like geographic structure near Luna's north pole. Both of the spacecraft have been orbiting Luna in close orbit for the past year mapping Lunar gravity. The “GraIL” spacecraft have mapped the Lunar crust as well with unprecedented detail. The space craft are running low on fuel, but as Maria Zuber from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology stated, “"In my wildest dreams, I could not have imagined that this mission would have gone any better than it has.” The two spacecraft are projected to collide with the Lunar surface around 5:28pm EST on Monday. When the spacecraft were orbiting at about 55 km above the lunar surface, the Gravity maps they created revealed that Luna has a shallower and much more fractured crust than expected. Researchers state that this is the result of asteroid and multiple comet impacts billions of years ago.

Maria Zuber

As lead scientist Maria Zuber, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, stated "We knew that the moon had been bombarded by impacts, but what we found is just how broken up and fractured the crust of the moon is." Recently discovered of subterranean cracks filled with lava presented evidence of the body's expansion during its early existence. NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will be responsible for attempting to survey the crash sites after the collisions. Unfortunately, no pictures can be expected as the region where the impact will take place will be dark during the time of the collision. We can only look forward to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's findings once they are officially released. As Maria Zuber said, "These are two small spacecraft with empty fuel tanks, so we're not expecting a flash that is visible from Earth." 

Lunar Gravity Map

The findings that are presented by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will help us further understand the early developmental stages of the Luna's existence. We can hope to obtain knowledge of Luna's future based on the body's past. It seems as technology and science advance, we get the most amazing opportunities to really learn about the universe. I do not think that they are making a mistake by investing more time into Luna. The findings we shall soon be exposed to could help us to gather more information to the early years of our own solar system. 

Image Credits:

NASA

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/zuber-mercury-0201.html