Two probes U.S. space Agency NASA went with a circumlunar orbit after the command of engineers and landed on the surface of the satellite. This was announced by the experts of NASA's jet propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.


The probes during the year was studying the gravitational field and the internal structure of the moon in the framework of the project GRAIL. On Monday, December 17, they crashed into one of the rocks in the area of the crater Goldschmidt at the North pole of the moon. The probe flew at a speed of 1.7 kilometers per second and crashed with an interval in half a minute.

In the fall of vehicles, the area of the moon was in the shadow, so to observe the completion of their mission from Earth was impossible. Before the collision, the probes for the last time turned on the engines to work out the remaining fuel. Decision on completion of the mission was made due to the fact that the vehicles ran out of gas, and their orbit was not possible to collect the necessary information, ITAR-TASS reported.

Specialists broke probes at the North pole of the moon, to eliminate any possibility of their falling in places that have the "historic" value - for example, in the area of the landing ships "Apollo". The crash site NASA spacecraft called the name of the astronaut Sally Ride, who passed away in July 2012. In 1983, she became the first American woman to perform a spacewalk. In the last years of his life Ryde was engaged, in particular, the study of the moon.

Lunar complex NASA to study the gravitational field and the internal structure of the moon consisted of two identical probes the size of a washing machine, built by the Corporation Lockheed Martin". Spacecraft, called "ABB" and "Flow" were launched in September 2011 with booster Delta-2". Almost a year probes circled Earth satellite at an altitude of about 55 kilometers. They were gravitational card, and also investigated the Geology of the moon, including the kernel, which, as expected, differs in composition from the earth.

Initially it was planned that the devices will work in orbit for three months, however, NASA has decided to extend the mission until the end of 2012. Most of the data collected by probes, still need to be analysed, but the leaders of the mission has already announced that it was successful.

"We have achieved everything we could count. I confess I did not expect that this project will prove to be so successful" - said Maria Zuber, research Director
mission, an employee of the Massachusetts Institute of technology.
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In particular, using "ABB" and "Flow" managed to significantly improve the accuracy of the maps of the lunar gravity. According to scientists, this will help in the preparation of future plantings on Earth satellite. The probes also helped to establish that the thickness of the lunar crust is much less than previously thought.