Nasa to launch moon probe this week - Telegraph.co.uk

Many moons, planets and even large asteroids have a similar atmosphere and the research could reveal details about conditions on Mercury, for example. Dr Sarah Noble, one of the program scientists, told CBS News: "The interesting thing about Mercury is that we don't have any samples of Mercury's surface. "On the moon, we actually already know what the rocks are at the surface, but [LADEE] will help to compare what is on the surface versus what is in the atmosphere on the moon. "[This science] will actually help us work our way back to Mercury and understand the difference between what we're seeing in the atmosphere and what might be on the ground there. We're actually going to learn about Mercury even from this lunar mission." LADEE will take about 30 days to reach the moon and settle into its final orbit, before spending 100 days carrying out scientific research. John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's science mission directorate, said the "exciting" mission would build on the work of several previous probes. "With the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is still in orbit around the moon, we've learned an enormous amount about the surface of the moon," he said. "With GRAIL we studied the interior of the moon, and now with LADEE we're going to learn about the moon's atmosphere which is something very mysterious and we know very little about. This is a particularly exciting mission for us." via Science - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNFwCSPzMVIUgxekwHbITBonjwO6kg&url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/10283057/Nasa-to-launch-moon-probe-this-week.html

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