Planetary Science

Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL)

Orbiter · Competed · PI-led · Launched on September 10, 2011 · Completed · LCC: $496M/$725M (2025 $)Life-cycle cost: NASA’s reported cost to build, launch, and operate a mission through its prime mission, plus documented partner contributions, in 2025 dollars. Extended missions are not included. Methods · Wikipedia

Scope Active Mission WindowActivePapers published from the first full month after science operations begin through two years after the mission ends. Citations are counted through the third calendar year after each paper appears. For GRAIL, papers published April 1, 2012 to January 1, 2015. Methods LifetimeLifetimeEvery tracked publication to date, with every citation to date. For GRAIL, papers published from 2012 to November 3, 2026. Methods
Tracked publicationsTracked publications: peer-reviewed papers we found that name the mission or its instruments in their titles, abstracts, or keywords. Papers that used the data without naming it are missed. Methods192
CitationsCitations: every citation these publications have drawn to date. Older missions have had longer to collect them. Methods7,703
Citation indices
h-indexh-index: the largest h such that h papers have at least h citations each. It only grows with time, so older missions score higher. Methods46
g-indexg-index: the largest g for which the g most-cited papers together hold at least g² citations. Like the h-index, but it lets the most-cited papers count for more. Methods84
m-indexm-index: a mission’s h-index divided by the years since its first peer-reviewed paper. It falls every 1 January even when nothing else changes; the figure shown is as of November 3, 2026. It also discounts the long operating life that larger missions paid for. Methods3.1
toritori (total research impact, from SciX): for every paper citing one of the mission’s papers, 1 divided by the citing paper’s reference count times the cited paper’s author count, summed, with self-citations removed. It favors citations from papers with short reference lists and from outside the mission’s own authors. Computed over the tracked citation graph, which can be slightly incomplete. Always over every tracked publication to date, whichever scope is chosen. Methods31
riqriq (research impact quotient): 1,000 times the square root of tori, divided by the years since the mission’s first paper. A rate, not a total, so it does not keep growing with age the way the h-index and tori do. Like tori, always over every tracked publication to date. Methods370

Publications and citations by year (lifetime)

Publications per yearCumulative citations

Institutional contributions (lifetime)The institutions SciX lists for each paper’s authors, as printed on the paper, located through the Research Organization Registry. A square counts a paper once, however many of its authors worked there. Methods

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Tracked publications over the lifetime (192)

All publications CSV · JSON

  1. The Crust of the Moon as Seen by GRAIL

    Wieczorek, Mark A., 2013, Sci

    888 lifetime citations

  2. Gravity Field of the Moon from the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) Mission

    Zuber, Maria T., 2013, Sci

    450 lifetime citations

  3. Lunar impact basins revealed by Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory measurements

    Neumann, G. A., 2015, SciA

    237 lifetime citations

  4. Lunar interior properties from the GRAIL mission

    Williams, James G., 2014, JGRE

    209 lifetime citations

  5. Ancient Igneous Intrusions and Early Expansion of the Moon Revealed by GRAIL Gravity Gradiometry

    Andrews-Hanna, Jeffrey C., 2013, Sci

    182 lifetime citations

  6. The Origin of Lunar Mascon Basins

    Melosh, H. J., 2013, Sci

    180 lifetime citations

  7. GRGM900C: A degree 900 lunar gravity model from GRAIL primary and extended mission data

    Lemoine, Frank G., 2014, GeoRL

    179 lifetime citations

  8. The JPL lunar gravity field to spherical harmonic degree 660 from the GRAIL Primary Mission

    Konopliv, Alex S., 2013, JGRE

    178 lifetime citations

  9. Generation, ascent and eruption of magma on the Moon: New insights into source depths, magma supply, intrusions and effusive/explosive eruptions (Part 1: Theory)

    Wilson, Lionel, 2017, Icar

    178 lifetime citations

  10. Crystallization of the lunar magma ocean and the primordial mantle-crust differentiation of the Moon

    Charlier, Bernard, 2018, GeCoA

    163 lifetime citations

  11. GRAIL gravity constraints on the vertical and lateral density structure of the lunar crust

    Besserer, Jonathan, 2014, GeoRL

    161 lifetime citations

  12. Lunar central peak mineralogy and iron content using the Kaguya Multiband Imager: Reassessment of the compositional structure of the lunar crust

    Lemelin, Myriam, 2015, JGRE

    140 lifetime citations

  13. High‒degree gravity models from GRAIL primary mission data

    Lemoine, Frank G., 2013, JGRE

    139 lifetime citations

  14. Lunar floor-fractured craters: Classification, distribution, origin and implications for magmatism and shallow crustal structure

    Jozwiak, Lauren M., 2012, JGRE

    130 lifetime citations

  15. Asymmetric Distribution of Lunar Impact Basins Caused by Variations in Target Properties

    Miljković, Katarina, 2013, Sci

    127 lifetime citations

  16. High-resolution lunar gravity fields from the GRAIL Primary and Extended Missions

    Konopliv, Alex S., 2014, GeoRL

    127 lifetime citations

  17. A 3-D numerical study of the thermal evolution of the Moon after cumulate mantle overturn: The importance of rheology and core solidification

    Zhang, Nan, 2013, JGRE

    121 lifetime citations

  18. Fractional crystallization of the lunar magma ocean: Updating the dominant paradigm

    Rapp, J. F., 2018, M&PS

    121 lifetime citations

  19. Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL): Mapping the Lunar Interior from Crust to Core

    Zuber, Maria T., 2013, SSRv

    120 lifetime citations

  20. Global assessment of pure crystalline plagioclase across the Moon and implications for the evolution of the primary crust

    Donaldson Hanna, K. L., 2014, JGRE

    111 lifetime citations

How we found these papers

We searched NASA’s Science Explorer (SciX) for peer-reviewed articles naming GRAIL in the title, abstract or keywords; standard filters drop articles that are not peer-reviewed and magazine pieces.

((=abs:"Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory" OR (abs:GRAIL AND (abs:Moon OR abs:lunar OR abs:gravity)) )) AND property:refereed AND doctype:article AND pubdate:[2012-04 TO 2040-01] AND NOT bibstem:("A&R" OR "ACPD" OR "AIASJ" OR "AMTD" OR "AeAm" OR "AirSp" OR "AsNow" OR "AsUAI" OR "AvWST" OR "BGD" OR "C&E" OR "C&T" OR "CAPJ" OR "CliPD" OR "E&S" OR "ENews" OR "ESDD" OR "ESSDD" OR "ESuDD" OR "GID" OR "GMDD" OR "GeCAS" OR "HESSD" OR "IrAJ" OR "JCos" OR "JRASC" OR "LAstr" OR "MNSSA" OR "Met" OR "NHESD" OR "NPGD" OR "NewSc" OR "OcScD" OR "Orion" OR "PhT" OR "PhTea" OR "PhuZ" OR "PhyOJ" OR "PhyW" OR "PlR" OR "SOILD" OR "SciAm" OR "SpFl" OR "TCD" OR "ZemVs")

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