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NASA is eyeing the Moon right now. Its GRAIL mission is set to launch in less than 15 minutes. And let's bring up a live look at the launch vehicle.

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It holds twin space probes that will orbit the moon in tandem, but they won't arrive there until New Year's Eve. 

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Now, this slow trip is meant to save energy.

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Now, the probes will study what lies beneath the lunar surface by mapping the Moon's gravity. 

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Now, this mission will help scientists understand how Earth and other planets form, but it could also inspire another generation of space explorers.

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John Zarrella joins us now live from Cape Canaveral in Florida. 

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And John, the GRAIL mission, it sounds almost biblical, but explain the acronym and what it's all about.

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Yeah. Well, it's a gravity mission, as you pointed out, and the bottom line is, the weather here is a lot better off than NASA thought it was gonna be.

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And, you know, it struck me that, while we've sent people to the Moon, we really don't know what's inside the Moon. 

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This Delta rocket behind me, poised to lift off, as you mentioned, in less than 15 minutes, 

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carrying twin spacecraft that NASA believes will answer that question.

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The Moon. OK. So, we've established it's not really made of green cheese.

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The Apollo astronauts bagged up more than 800 pounds of rock and dirt --

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The soil here is a bit firmer, I think.

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What about all that stuff? Isn't that what the Moon is made of? Well, that's just what's on top.

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The fact is, we really don't know what's beneath the surface.

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NASA is embarking on a unique mission called GRAIL. 

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Two space probes will fly one behind the other in identical orbits around the Moon. 

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The gravitational tug on the probes changes as they fly over various features -- mountains, valleys or masses hidden below the surface.

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Measuring the change gives scientists, in essence, a lunar CAT scan. 

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That's right. Imagine a CAT scan of the Moon.

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It's theorized that the Moon was formed from the debris released after a collision between the Earth and another giant body. 

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If that's the case, it will give scientists a better understanding of how the inner planets of the Solar System were formed.

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And in a first, NASA will dedicate instruments -- in this case, cameras on the probes -- exclusively to education. 

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Middle school students and teachers can go to the MoonKam Web site and request a lunar surface location to be photographed.