NASA Invites Students to Name Moon-Bound Spacecraft

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DC Agle 818-393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
agle@jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
Headquarters, Washington
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

Caroline McCall 617-253-1682
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
cmcall5@mit.edu

News Release: 2011-311 October 3, 2011

NASA Invites Students to Name Moon-Bound Spacecraft

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-311&cid=release_2011-311

WASHINGTON -- NASA has a class assignment for U.S. students: help the agency give the twin
spacecraft headed to orbit around the moon new names.

The naming contest is open to students in kindergarten through 12th grade at schools in the United
States. Entries must be submitted by teachers using an online entry form. Length of submissions can
range from a short paragraph to a 500-word essay. The entry deadline is Nov. 11.

NASA's solar-powered Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL)-A and GRAIL-B
spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. on Sept. 10 to begin a three-and-a-
half-month journey to the moon. GRAIL will create a gravity map of the moon using two spacecraft
that orbit at very precise distances. The mission will enable scientists to learn about the moon's
internal structure and composition, and give scientists a better understanding of its origin. Accurate
knowledge of the moon's gravity also could be used to help choose future landing sites.

"A NASA mission to the moon is one of the reasons why I am a scientist today," said GRAIL
Principal Investigator Maria Zuber from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.
"My hope is that GRAIL motivates young people today towards careers in science, math and
technology. Getting involved with naming our two GRAIL spacecraft could inspire their interest not
only in space exploration but in the sciences, and that's a good thing."

Zuber and former astronaut Sally Ride of Sally Ride Science in San Diego will chair the final round
of judging. Sally Ride Science is the lead for GRAIL's MoonKAM program, which enables students
to task cameras aboard the two GRAIL spacecraft to take close-up views of the lunar surface.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., a division of the California Institute of
Technology, manages the GRAIL mission. GRAIL 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.

For contest rules and more information, visit: http://grail.nasa.gov/contest

The public can email questions to: grailcontest@jpl.nasa.gov

For more information about GRAIL, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/grail

For more information about MoonKAM, visit: https://moonkam.ucsd.edu/

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