For scientists Sarah Mikalov-Fleisher, news that a methane-affiliated satellite was lost in space last week that she left you feel that the air was absorbed from its lungs.
This happened a few days before New Zealand dominated the control of the spacecraft, known as methansate, which was designed to “name and disgrace” the worst methane pollutants in the oil and gas industry.
“It was a very difficult moment in my career,” says Michaalov Fletcher, the lead in Windton, in New Zealand. “I expected even two days before this news that this would be a healthy task that lasts three to five years.”
The satellite was the first space mission funded by New Zealand. However, the project was suffering from issues and delay, and officials confirmed last week that after only 15 months in orbit, the satellite lost on Earth and was likely to be unaccounted.
The loss of the satellite suffers a heavy blow to the government -funded space sector in the country. New Zealand initially invested 29 million New Zealand in methansat, a project led by the NGOs in the United States (EDF) with another financing that comes from the Earth’s Pesus Fund, the bold project and the Vallala Foundation.
The primary goal of the industrial moon was to discover methane leakage from oil and gas production all over the world. But in New Zealand, Mecalov Fleisher is leading a supplementary project to explore whether the satellite can also follow the launch of strong greenhouse gases of agriculture. Methan represents nearly half of the greenhouse gas emissions in New Zealand.
The project was years in preparation, and some experts criticized the participation of New Zealand. In 2019, the government agreed to invest in the mission, but the launch of the satellite was postponed until March 2024. Nearly $ 12 million of funding was used to build the Mission Monitoring Center in Rockket Lab, a special spacecraft with a launch platform on the east coast of New Zealand and also operating from the United States.
Oakland University would have taken over the task last year, but the problems led to more delay. It included the satellite that is included in the safe position due to intense solar activity, and problems related to the operation of the defenses. The university has never taken control because the satellite stopped responding on June 20. By this point, the total New Zealand’s investments rose to $ 32 million, according to New Zealand Space Agency, due to additional funding for maintaining the ability to take over operations.
Judith Collins, the New Zealand government minister, refused to comment on the loss of methansat. New Zealand Vice President space The agency described Andrew Johnson as “it is clear that it is a disappointing development.”
But Johnson says that participation in the mission has strengthened New Zealand experience and space capacity, and the mission control center will continue to be used at the Auckland University at Oakland University as a training facility to put the country for future tasks.
However, Richard Estir, the physicist of Auckland University, who is not involved in the project, says it is wrong to invest New Zealand in methansat. He was initially excited about the mission, but he says he was “clearly unable to continue to set a date and connect a functional spacecraft.”
Although the task was publishing new sensors to detect methane, the design of the spacecraft itself was not a good specified as it should have been when New Zealand invested and parts of it “was not tested in space.”
The leadership of Methanesat in the mission and chief scientist at EDF Steve Hamburg says that the task is “technologically ambitious” and the team that has developed the satellite “includes some of the world’s most professional in both the public and private space journey.
Johnson says that the provider of satellite and functional components, as well as the sensor, was chosen before New Zealand joined the mission, but given the experience of the professionals concerned, “we have no reason to doubt their rule.”
John Kivman, Methanesat’s spokesperson, says it was not clear the reason for losing communication, but an expert committee was created for investigation. The current data groups will remain available for “foreseeable future” and more data will be released in the next few months. The team is still “uncomfortable in our efforts to push methane pollution.”
“No other satellite can coincide with the ability to discover changes in methane levels with this high accuracy and high allergy to these vast areas,” says Kivman.
Mikaloff-Fletcher says there were other tasks that faced similar challenges.
“A wonderful example of NASA’s tropical mission, which aims to provide the most accurate measurements of carbon dioxide made from space. It was launched in 2009 and fell into the ocean without a single measurement procedure,” says Mikalov Fletcher, although she notes that more satellites have been launched to achieve the task.
Methanesat says data will be useful in tracking agricultural emissions, and her work in this field will continue despite the setback.
The initial analysis shows satellite notes on the agricultural targets in New Zealand well with modeling and measurements collected by aircraft transport tools, indicating “we will be able to measure agricultural emissions in a wide range of different agricultural systems of existing data.”
“The satellite life may be shorter than it was hoping, but the project will continue to throw a new light on agricultural emissions from our data.”