JPL: First Beamed-Back Images of Moon's Dark Side

Have you always wanted to see the dark side of the moon?

Check out this NASA video, shot from a camera aboard Ebb, one of the twin Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) lunar spacecraft.  manages the GRAIL mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

Ebb has returned its first unique view of the far side of the moon with MoonKAM, or Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students. It will be used by students across the country to select lunar images for study.

, are equipped with a MoonKAM. The images in this video were taken as part of a test of Ebb's MoonKAM on Jan.19. The GRAIL project plans to test the MoonKAM aboard Flow at a later date.

In the video, the north pole of the moon is visible at the top of the screen as the spacecraft flies toward the lunar south pole, according to a JPL press release. One of the first prominent geological features seen on the lower third of the moon is the Mare Orientale, a 560-mile-wide impact basin that straddles both the moon's near and far side.

The clip ends with rugged terrain just shy of the lunar south pole. To the left of center, near the bottom of the screen, is the 93-mile-wide Drygalski crater with a star-shaped formation in the middle. The formation is a central peak, created many billions of years ago by a comet or asteroid impact, the press release states.

The twin spacecraft successfully reached lunar orbit this past New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Previously named GRAIL-A and GRAIL-B, the spacecraft -- the size of a washing machine --  in Montana, after a nationwide naming contest.

Thousands of fourth- to eighth-grade students will select target areas on the lunar surface and send requests to the GRAIL MoonKAM Mission Operations Center in San Diego. Photos of the target areas will be sent back by the satellites for students to study.

The MoonKAM program is led by Sally Ride, America's first woman in space, at Sally Ride Science in San Diego. The program intends to engage middle schools across the country in the GRAIL mission and lunar exploration. GRAIL is NASA's first planetary mission carrying instruments fully dedicated to education and public outreach.

The spacecraft was launched in September.