The GRAIL Mission is led
by Principal Investigator Dr. Maria Zuber of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT). Deputy PI is Dr. David Smith of the Goddard Spaceflight
Center. GRAIL Project Management is being provided by NASA’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory. JPL is also handling system engineering, safety and mission
assurance, mission design, payload development and navigations. During the
mission, JPL will lead mission control and operations. Assembly of GRAIL has
been done by Lockheed Martin. GRAIL’s Lead Project Manager is David Lehman,
primary Lockheed Martin spacecraft manager is John Henk. LM will conduct flight support
operations from its Denver facility that also supports other missions to Mars.
Photo: NASA
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California
The science team is led
by Project Scientist Dr. Michael Watkins who also was the PS for GRACE – a
mission very similar to GRAIL. The Deputy PS is Sami Asmar who specialized in Radio Science Operations. Other Science Team Members and Co-Investigators Alex
Konopliv, Frank Lemoine and Dave Smith have previous experience with lunar
gravity models. The science team is also involved in other lunar missions like LRO. The
team includes planetary geophysicists. Also part of the team are members with
experience in Deep Space Network Operations and Lunar Laser Ranging. The Education Branch of the GRAIL Mission involves Dr. Sally Ride, America's first woman in space, and her organization.
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An important part of the
GRAIL mission is the Deep Space Network (DSN). Stations in Goldstone,
California, Madrid, Spain, and Canberra, Australia will be involved in the
GRAIL Mission. Those Stations will be uploading commands to the Spacecraft and
download science data and imagery. During critical mission events (Lunar Orbit
Insertion), dual coverage of the Goldstone and Madrid Stations will be
established. The DSN will also be used to keep the Ultra Stable Oscillators
aboard the vehicles calibrated.
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 Photo: NASA JPL DSN Canberra
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 Photo: NASA JPL DSN Madrid
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 Photo: NASA JPL DSN Goldstone
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Data analyses will be
managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Goddard Spaceflight Center and the
MIT. Members of the science team will perform advanced scientific
interpretations and provide results and data products to the Planetary Data
System. The PDS will be the final repository of all GRAIL Science Data for
access by the science community and future generations.
Mission Staff
Source: NASA
