JPL Operations

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) will manage GRAIL's mission operations and provide navigation and mission support using Multi-Mission Ground System Services and the Deep Space Network.

Lockheed Martin Operations

GRAIL's industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Space Systems, will conduct spacecraft flight operations from its Denver facility, which also supports operations of the Mars Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter missions.

Deep Space Network

The Deep Space Network facilities in Goldstone, California; Madrid, Spain; and Canberra, Australia will be employed to upload commands and download data from the GRAIL spacecraft. These three locations are about 120? apart from each other, so at least one is always in view of the spacecraft as the Earth rotates and the Moon orbits. The maneuvers that will place each spacecraft into lunar orbit will be timed so that the tracking stations at both Goldstone, California and Madrid, Spain will be able to monitor them, providing dual coverage of these mission-critical events.

Hydrogen masers at each DSN station will be used to calibrate the clocks (ultra-stable oscillators) aboard each of the GRAIL spacecraft.

Planetary Data System

Science Level 0 and Level 1 data processing will be done at JPL with high reuse of software from the GRACE mission. Level 2 processing will be done at JPL, the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The science team members will perform advanced products and scientific interpretation. Final delivery of science data products to Planetary Data System (PDS) will be performed by MIT.

The PDS will be the final repository of all science data for the science community and future generations to access.