Looks like it’s really a Phase I environmental site assessment!
The Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory, or GRAIL, mission is a part of NASA’s Discovery Program. It is scheduled to launch in 2011. GRAIL will fly twin spacecraft in tandem orbits around the moon for several months to measure its gravity field in unprecedented detail.
I mean, if you think about it, does anybody really think our next set of mission goals goals will be a trip to Mars?
Me either.
But they did have to have a good set of replacements ready and in place for the days that would have to follow the Space Shuttle program.
So what are they planning then?….
Up to now, NASA’s mission goals have always been very clear when it came to their long term objectives.
Traditionally, NASA has been able to see fairly well into their own future, thus allowing them to plan and execute vital missions over longer periods of time.
They’ve done this in order to make the most efficient use of their extremely expensive and complex equipment. This equipment, it’s support structure, and everything else it takes to run a space program are so expensive to develop and maintain, that goals set ten years into the future are not only wise, but essential.
Related articles
- Second of NASA’s twin Grail probes en route to study moon’s gravity (theglobeandmail.com)
- NASA Makes New Year’s Resolution: More Lunar Discoveries in 2012 (inquisitr.com)
- NASA’s Twin GRAIL Spacecraft Reunite in Lunar Orbit (prnewswire.com)
The Singularity Effect 