Execution-Error Modeling and Analysis of the GRAIL Spacecraft Pair

Abstract

The GRAIL spacecraft, Ebb and Flow (aka GRAIL-A and GRAIL-B), completed their prime mission in June and extended mission in December 2012. The excellent performance of the propulsion and attitude control subsystems contributed significantly to the mission's success. In order to better understand this performance, the Navigation Team has analyzed and refined the execution-error models for delta-v maneuvers. There were enough maneuvers in the prime mission to form the basis of a model update that was used in the extended mission. This paper documents the evolution of the execution-error models along with the analysis and software used.