NASA: GRAIL Naming Contest 2011

Difficulty Level : Moderate ( 2 out of 5 ) NASA launched twin GRAIL spacecrafts for a three-and-a-half-month journey of moon and they need two real names from American students. To recruit students for naming duty, the space agency has intended GRAIL Naming Contest 2011. Presently the robots identified as GRAIL (Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory) A and GRAIL B has been launched on Sept. 10 on a mission to create a gravity map of the moon. NASA welcomes to all students in kindergarten through 12th grade in this great NASA’s GRAIL mission based contest for suggesting names for the GRAIL spacecrafts along with a description on names. But students can not receive direct entry in the contest; they need to register their names for the contest by their teacher. The winning entry will receive autographed MoonKAM photos and entry featured names will be posted on the GRAIL website. Plus, the winners will get a chance to take part in a teleconference with GRAIL mission team members. Excitingly, both GRAIL robots will be renamed with suggested names in the winning entry.

Limit: One teacher may submit only one entry per class on behalf of his/her students. Teachers can submit entries for students in kindergarten to 12th grade in the United States.

During the contest period, visit www.nasa.gov and follow the contest featured icon on the landing page. Then follow the instructed information and advance on the entry form page. Here remember that students under age 18 could not enter directly; they must submit their entry by teachers using the online entry form. A teacher can submit an entry for an individual student or for the whole class. In entry form, teacher has to include numbers and names of students in his/her class, who participated in the naming contest plus grand of students.

As main portion of the contest, submit students’ choice real names for currently dubbed spacecrafts "GRAIL-A" and "GRAIL-B” and its justification in 500 words or less in English that must be original and other required information.

Lastly one best entry will be deemed from all received entries and with the selected winning entry’s names, the twin spacecraft headed to orbit around the moon will be officially renamed.

As well, all featured participants in the winning entry will be invited to participate in a teleconference with GRAIL mission team members and autographed MoonKAM images will be sent via mail to the winning school. Every student who submitted the winning spacecraft names will be posted on the GRAIL website.