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\h        Music

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\h        Narrator: The moon has captivated humanity's collective imagination since ancient times.

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\h        Humans have studied it for hundreds of years -- first with telescopes,

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\h        then with robotic probes, even sending twelve American astronauts to the lunar surface.

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\h        But in many ways, our nearest neighbor remains a mystery.

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\h        David Lehman, GRAIL Project Manager/Jet Propulsion Laboratory: And so, knowing

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\h        what happened with the moon will help us understand what happened with the Earth,

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\h        Venus, Mercury, and Mars. So that's the reason we want to try to understand it.

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\h        We're trying to understand the past formation of the planets,

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\h        so that will help us learn the future.

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\h        Narrator: Clues about our own planet's history -- and the influence of the moon's gravity

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\h        on Earth, 240,000 miles away -- could be locked below that dusty lunar surface.

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\h        The Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory mission, or GRAIL, features twin

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\h        spacecraft embarking on a challenging mission to map the moon's gravity.

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\h        David Lehman, GRAIL Project Manager/Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Its sole purpose is to

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\h        measure gravity of the moon, to try to help us understand how the planets were formed,

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\h        and how they evolved over time.

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\h        Narrator: GRAIL's two spacecraft will fly in formation above the lunar surface to

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\h        measure the variations in gravity.

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\h        The mission seeks to reveal clues about our moon's thermal history, and how the inner

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\h        solar system's rocky planets developed.

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\h        GRAIL is departing from Pad B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch

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\h        Complex 17.

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\h        Prelaunch processing -- and the final countdown -- are managed by NASA's Launch

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\h        Services Program at nearby Kennedy Space Center.

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\h        Tim Dunn, NASA Launch Manager/NASA's Launch Services Program: Our team,

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\h        especially, gets excited whenever we leave Earth orbit, and going to the moon excites us

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\h        and excites the public.

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\h        Narrator: The two spacecraft -- called GRAIL-A and GRAIL-B -- are riding into space

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\h        side-by-side aboard a powerful Delta II Heavy rocket built by United Launch Alliance.

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\h        It's a rocket with an impressive reliability record.

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\h        Tim Dunn, NASA Launch Manager/NASA's Launch Services Program: If we just look at

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\h        the Delta II rocket, which is the version of the vehicle that we fly today,

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\h        NASA has a perfect launch record, 48 for 48.

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\h        Narrator: The payload for NASA's most recent lunar mission, called LRO-LCROSS,

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\h        which weighed in at 6,600 pounds and was the size of a minivan.

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\h        It launched in 2009 aboard a massive Atlas V rocket, but that extra performance isn't

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\h        needed for the GRAIL spacecraft, which together weigh only about 1,600 pounds.

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\h        Each unit is about the size of a washing machine, designed to be compact and rugged -- a

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\h        perfect fit for the Delta II.

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\h        Preparing two spacecraft adds an extra challenge to the team's workload, from

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\h        environmental testing before launch all the way through the countdown.

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\h        Bruce Reid, GRAIL Mission Manager/NASA's Launch Services Program: And then,

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\h        for instance, on launch day, we have two dedicated teams -- one to GRAIL A and one to

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\h        GRAIL B. And they'll have to individually power up each spacecraft, and go through

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\h        their health checks, and put the spacecraft in the proper configuration for launch.

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\h        Narrator: After the climb to orbit, the GRAIL spacecraft will be released from the launch

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\h        vehicle one at a time, as launch controllers and managers on the ground wait for news of

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\h        spacecraft separation.

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\h        Bruce Reid, GRAIL Mission Manager/NASA's Launch Services Program: So we will

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\h        definitely wait to celebrate until both spacecraft are safe and are on their translunar cruise

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\h        to the moon.

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\h        Narrator: GRAIL's journey to the moon will take three-and-a-half months,

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\h        a mission plan offering

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\h        plenty of time for controllers to make sure the spacecraft are ready to get to work.

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\h        Bruce Reid, GRAIL Mission Manager/NASA's Launch Services Program: And

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\h        regardless of when we launch, we're going to have a constant arrival date.

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\h        So GRAIL A will arrive on New Year's Eve of 2011 and GRAIL B will arrive on New

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\h        Year's Day of 2012.

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\h        Narrator: Each spacecraft will have to execute a critical, 38-minute lunar orbit insertion

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\h        burn to slide into lunar orbit. Then they'll spend the next five weeks reducing their orbit

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\h        period and getting into formation.

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\h        During the mission's three-month science phase, the moon will rotate three times beneath

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\h        the two GRAIL spacecraft as they calculate the gravity they encounter.

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\h        One spacecraft will trail the other in orbit, and each will slow down or speed up in

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\h        response to the changing gravitational pull from below.

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\h        David Lehman, GRAIL Project Manager/Jet Propulsion Laboratory: And you need the

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\h        two spacecraft to do that in order to measure the distance between the two very precisely.

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\h        Narrator: This data will allow scientists an unprecedented chance to study the gravity of

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\h        the whole moon -- including the far side, facing away from Earth -- and envision the

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\h        moon's interior from crust to core.

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\h        The GRAIL mission also marks the first time students have a dedicated camera on board

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\h        a planetary spacecraft, in order to request photos of specific lunar targets.

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\h        The MoonKam project is headed by Dr. Sally Ride, the first American woman

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\h        to fly in space.

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\h        David Lehman, GRAIL Project Manager/Jet Propulsion Laboratory: What students need

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\h        to do is to go on moonkam.ucsd.edu, and that's how they register to submit for images of

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\h        the moon. And then the images will be put on the Internet for the students to see.

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\h        Narrator: At the mission's end, the GRAIL spacecraft will be decommissioned,

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\h        eventually impacting the lunar surface.

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\h        The path from the Earth to the moon has been well traveled in recent decades by pioneers

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\h        like Surveyor... the Apollo astronauts... Lunar Prospector... and many more.

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\h        Today, GRAIL is ready to take its place in this long line of lunar explorers.

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\h        David Lehman, GRAIL Project Manager/Jet Propulsion Laboratory: The moment I'm

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\h        looking forward to is when we finally get into formation flying and we're ready to start

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\h        taking science data for the mission.

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\h        Tim Dunn, NASA Launch Manager/NASA's Launch Services Program: I'm going to be

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\h        passing Complex 17 about 3:30 a.m. on my way to console.