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The Role of GRAIL Orbit Determination in Preprocessing of Gravity Science MeasurementsThe Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission has constructed a lunar gravity field with unprecedented uniform accuracy on the farside and nearside of the Moon. GRAIL lunar gravity field determination begins with preprocessing of the gravity science measurements by applying corrections for time tag error, general relativity, measurement noise and biases. Gravity field determination requires the generation of spacecraft ephemerides of an accuracy not attainable with the pre-GRAIL lunar gravity fields. Therefore, a bootstrapping strategy was developed, iterating between science data preprocessing and lunar gravity field estimation in order to construct sufficiently accurate orbit ephemerides.This paper describes the GRAIL measurements, their dependence on the spacecraft ephemerides and the role of orbit determination in the bootstrapping strategy. Simulation results will be presented that validate the bootstrapping strategy followed by bootstrapping results for flight data, which have led to the latest GRAIL lunar gravity fields.
Document ID
20150007249
Acquisition Source
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Document Type
Conference Paper
External Source(s)
Authors
Kruizinga, Gerhard
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Asmar, Sami
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Fahnestock, Eugene
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Harvey, Nate
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Kahan, Daniel
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Konopliv, Alex
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Oudrhiri, Kamal
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Paik, Meegyeong
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Park, Ryan
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Strekalov, Dmitry
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Watkins, Michael
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Yuan, Dah-Ning
(Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
May 4, 2015
Publication Date
February 10, 2013
Subject Category
Space Communications, Spacecraft Communications, Command And Tracking
Report/Patent Number
AAS 13-270
Meeting Information
Meeting: AAS/AIAA Spaceflight Mechanics Meeting
Location: Kauai, HI
Country: United States
Start Date: February 10, 2013
End Date: February 14, 2013
Sponsors: American Inst. of Aeronautics and Astronautics, American Astronautical Society
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
science preprocessing
Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL)
science measurement
orbit determination

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