NASA probes set to smash into Moon
US: NASA will smash two tiny probes into the Moon on Monday after
they spent months gathering data from orbit miles above the lunar
surface, the US space agency said Thursday.
“We’re not expecting a big smash, a big explosion,” said project
manager David Lehman of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “Their fuel
tank will be empty and they are the size of a washing machine.” The
probes dubbed Ebb and Flow are set to end their controlled descent on a
mountain near the Moon’s north pole at about 22:28 GMT.
They will hit the surface at a whopping 3,760 miles per hour (1.7
kilometers per second).
Unfortunately, NASA will not be able to gather pictures of the impact
because the region will be in shadow at the time of impact.
The probes are being destroyed after running too low on fuel and
sinking too low in orbit to conduct any more missions.
The probes managed to generate the highest resolution gravity map
ever gathered from a celestial body. That will help provide a better
understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system
formed and evolved, NASA said. “I couldn’t have imagined even in my
dreams that the mission would be so successful,” said principal
investigator Maria Zuber of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“It is going to be difficult to say goodbye.” The probes have been
flying in formation around the moon since January 1 starting with an
average altitude of 34 miles (55 kilometers) above the surface, and then
sinking to around 14 miles (23 kilometers) for a closer look.
At some points they were flying just a few miles above the moon’s
tallest mountains. “Our lunar twins may be in the twilight of their
operational lives, but one thing is for sure. They are going down
swinging,” Lehman added. “Even during the last half of their last orbit,
we are going to do an engineering experiment that could help future
missions operate more efficiently.” Ebb and Flow will fire their main
engines until the tanks are empty, which will allow NASA to determine
precisely how much fuel is left.
That will help them improve predictions of fuel needs for future
missions.
AFP |