[smokingfrog]

As of this morning, GRAIL-A was about 65,850 miles from the moon, and traveling at about 745 mph. Its twin was 79,540 miles away and closing at a speed of 763 mph.

[smokingfrog]

The GRAIL Science Team will conduct six lunar science investigations to:

• Map the structure of the crust & lithosphere.
• Understand the Moon’s asymmetric thermal evolution.
• Determine the subsurface structure of impact basins and the origin of mascons.
• Ascertain the temporal evolution of crustal brecciation and magmatism.
• Constrain deep interior structure from tides.
• Place limits on the size of the possible inner core.

[plsvn]

The way these two spacecraft made it to the moon is just as fascinating as the mission itself. Yet you can’t find out much if anything about these “Belbruno Ballistic Trajectories”.

Where are you finding Grail mission news? The usual NASA or JPL sites aren’t current at all.