MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
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DC Agle 818-393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
agle@jpl.nasa.gov
Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington
Dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov
Caroline McCall 617-253-1682
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
cmccall5@mit.edu
News release: 2012-083 March 22, 2012
NASA GRAIL Returns First Student-Selected Moon Images
The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-083&cid=release_2012-083
PASADENA, Calif. -- One of two NASA spacecraft orbiting the moon has beamed back the first
student-requested pictures of the lunar surface from its onboard camera. Fourth grade students from
the Emily Dickinson Elementary School in Bozeman, Mont., received the honor of making the first
image selections by winning a nationwide competition to rename the two spacecraft.
The image was taken by the MoonKam, or Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students.
Previously named Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) A and B, the twin spacecraft
are now called Ebb and Flow. Both washing-machine-sized orbiters carry a small MoonKAM
camera. Over 60 student–requested images were taken by the Ebb spacecraft from March 15-17 and
downlinked to Earth March 20.
"MoonKAM is based on the premise that if your average picture is worth a thousand words, then a
picture from lunar orbit may be worth a classroom full of engineering and science degrees," said
Maria Zuber, GRAIL mission principal investigator from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
in Cambridge, Mass. "Through MoonKAM, we have an opportunity to reach out to the next
generation of scientists and engineers. It is great to see things off to such a positive start."
GRAIL is NASA's first planetary mission to carry instruments fully dedicated to education and
public outreach. Students will select target areas on the lunar surface and request images to study
from the GRAIL MoonKAM Mission Operations Center in San Diego.
The MoonKAM program is led by Sally Ride, America's first woman in space, and her team at Sally
Ride Science in collaboration with undergraduate students at the University of California in San
Diego. More than 2,700 schools spanning 52 countries are using the MoonKAM cameras.
"What might seem like just a cool activity for these kids may very well have a profound impact on
their futures," Ride said. "The students really are excited about MoonKAM, and that translates into
an excitement about science and engineering."
Launched in September 2011, Ebb and Flow will answer longstanding questions about the moon and
give scientists a better understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system
formed.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages the GRAIL mission for NASA's
Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge,
is home to the mission's principal investigator, Maria Zuber. 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. The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena
manages JPL for NASA.
To view the student-requested images, visit:
http://images.moonkam.ucsd.edu
For more information about MoonKAM, visit:
For more information about GRAIL, visit:
-end-
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