NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) is preparing to finish its mission of orbiting and observing the moon by crashing into it.

According to a press release, the impact is expected to happen on April 21 at the latest. LADEE has been slowly lessening its altitude over the moon and is expected to continue gathering information before diving toward the surface later this month.

On April 11, LADEE mission managers will perform one final maintenance maneuver ahead of the April 15 total lunar eclipse. The Earth's shadow is expected to pass in front of the moon for approximately four hours and, being on the opposite side of the moon, the conditions will be just on the brink of what LADEE can withstand.

NASA has not yet chosen the impact destination for the lunar probe but will likely make select a spot on the side facing away from Earth.

"The moon's gravity field is so lumpy, and the terrain is so highly variable with crater ridges and valleys that frequent maneuvers are required or the LADEE spacecraft will impact the moon's surface," Butler Hine, LADEE project manager at Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., said in the release. "Even if we perform all maneuvers perfectly, there's still a chance LADEE could impact the moon sometime before April 21, which is when we expect LADEE's orbit to naturally decay after using all the fuel onboard."

NASA has even put out a guessing game to challenge anyone to correctly predict LADEE's landing time down to the minute. CLICK HERE to fill out the form and enter the challenge. The deadline to do so is 3 p.m. PDT on Friday, April 11.

"We want to thank all those that watched LADEE launch and have followed the mission these past months," Jim Green, NASA's Director for Planetary Science at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in the release. "Our Moon holds a special place in so many cultures, and because of LADEE, we'll know more than ever before about our nearest neighbor."

NASA has taken a special interest not only in our own moon, but those of Saturn. The Cassini spacecraft has obtained enough data to suggest there are subsurface oceans on both Enceladus and Europa. Next, Space.com reported, NASA is turning its attention to Mars' Phobos and Deimos moons.