Article Posted on : - Aug 14, 2011

An artist concept of GRAIL mission. A NASA/JPL photo

PASADENA, CALIFORNIA (BNS): NASA's twin lunar probes – GRAIL-A and GRAIL-B - have completed their final inspections and were weighed one final time at the Astrotech Space Operations facility in Titusville.

The two Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft will orbit the moon in formation to determine the structure of the lunar interior from crust to core and to advance knowledge of the thermal evolution of the moon, NASA said.

Scheduled to launch on September 8, GRAIL is a mission in NASA's Discovery Program of solar system investigations. The spacecrafts will be loaded side-by-side on a special adapter and packaged inside a payload fairing that will protect them during their launch into space.

The mission will answer longstanding questions about Earth's moon, and provide scientists a better understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system formed.