NASA probe joins twin at moon on New Year's Day

@ RoadRash
It's not like NASA takes a load of money into space and dumps it. Most of the money spent by NASA is paid to folks that build the spacecraft and support it once it's in space. That means that people are able to have jobs and spend the money they earn at stores and restaurants and in taxes to support society in general.

Good job, NASA!!

Nasa creates jobs...good ones.....maybe one of you naysayers children will get a job with them or a space contractor and do something good for themselves and you will see the benefit. Space exploration is also responsible for the continuation of advances in technology....which also creates jobs, we are better off cutting military expenses than space exploration expenses. Give our military a real mission....cover our borders and trim the expense of the border agents...

I suggest we build a base on the moon before going to Mars. Hopefully, there is water in the craters. Plenty of minerals to mine to build the station inside a wall of one of the larger craters. Just seems like a better idea than a straight shot to Mars.

Science is a fantastic investment, especially when it inspires young people to take mores science and math to better prepare them life in technological world. If you're not impressed by the science of this mission, sorry.

Like they aren't surveying for Helium3, a single space shuttle load of H3 could power the us for a year using aneutronic fusion reactors. To misquote Carl Sagan, Billions and billions of dollars.....

They want to know if its hollow.

@T-BONE: The cost of this mission per taxpaying US citizen is a whopping $3.60 --spent over a 5-7 year period. That's less than a McDouble and small fries ($496 million divided by 138 million taxpayers out of a total U.S. population of 307 million). What did (past tense) it provide us? Let's see... a lot of people found employment in the design and engineering of two spacecraft and the spacecraft that got them into orbit and on the way to the moon. Me thinks those jobs are high paying and require smart engineers, the kind of skills and jobs that we have lost over the decades.

During the mission high-paying tech jobs will be required to receive and process the data. Mapping the lunar gravity field - what could we possibly get from that? A better understanding of the interior of the moon, the knowledge of which can be directly applied to the better understanding of processes in the Earth's interior. That can easily translate to, for example, better earthquake prediction that means less loss of life and property.

Smart minds are stimulated by discovery, and if we want to remain a key player in the global economy we need high tech and jobs. We need kids to be inspired. My $3.60 was well spent. I would rather see engineers than burger flippers. What about your $3.60 and your kid's $3.60? I don't know about you, but I want my children to grow up as citizens of the country that LEADS the world in hi-tech R&D, jobs etc - not as a country that depends on the brains in other countries.

Roundabout is right...Geez..THREE MONTHS !? It took Apollo 11 just a few days to get to the moon. I guess NASA's trying to save money on gas too.

why are we really studying these planets i dont get it ? when we cant even manage the planet we live on. we suppose to be broke, people cant find jobs. government borrowing mony, but thats funny we spend billions and billions of tax payer dollars.to send some machine in space. that floats around in orbit, because it burns out. can we invest that mony here on this planet so people can find work.if god wanted us to live on the moon. r any other planet he would have put us there he can have are own planet to live on . it so many ligtht years away.hell these planet are not for us. there no gravity for human life.

I'm confident that if one of these spacecrafts hits the moon, lunar gravity will be proven.

Deep space travel may be the last, best hope of humanity trapped in poverty and wars on Earth. Glad that NASA is still keeping the dream alive for all humankind.

ahh, conjoining twin probes, sounds like a sex toy.

more money wasted on CRAP