GRACE-FO (The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On)
The GRACE-FO mission is a collaboration between NASA and the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ). GRACE-FO was launched in May of 2018 and is continuing the work of the original GRACE mission, which was in operation from 2002-2017. GRACE-FO will also be testing a new technology that was designed to further improve the accuracy and precision of its measuring system.
GRACE-FO is collecting data that indicates how far apart the two satellites are from each other. The satellites follow the same orbit around Earth, separated by a distance of approximately 137 miles. They will continually measure the distance between them by sending microwave signals back and forth to each other. As the satellites circle over an area of the earth with slightly stronger gravity- which is caused by a greater concentration of mass- one satellite will be affected before the other, pulling it away from its pair. The change in distance would be recorded by GRACE-FO, as it is designed to detect the smallest of changes in the distance between the satellites. A measuring device known as an accelerometer is able to measure the non-gravitational accelerations so that they are not recorded, and only accelerations caused by gravity are. Satellite Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are able to detect the exact position- to the nearest centimeter or less- of the satellite over the Earth. The information from the satellites is used, monthly, to create maps of the Earth’s average gravity field. The shows how mass, usually water, is moving around the planet.
GRACE-FO will continue tracking Earth's water movement to monitor changes in underground water storage, the amount of water in large lakes and rivers, soil moisture, ice sheets and glaciers, and sea level. These discoveries help scientist have a better view of the Earth's climate and how it is changing. The information provided by GRACE-FO will have long-term effects, not only in helping our society now but also the world's population in the future years
I think the GRACE-FO mission can relate to our JPL project because they both require teamwork and collaboration to be successful. NASA/JPL would not have been able to launch the GRACE-FO mission without the help of GFZ. This is similar to my team's invention for the JPL challenge. We would not have been able to create the same design had we not had all the different members that are on our team now.