NASA has decided to cancel the GeoCarb mission to measure greenhouse gas emissions over the continental United States. The reason is cost overruns. Going forward, NASA is looking at new ways to monitor air pollution. NASA hopes to achieve advanced climate observations in a more cost-effective way, he added.
The Geocarb mission was scheduled to launch in 2020 to map concentrations of key carbon gases from geostationary orbit. Geostationary satellites move at the same speed as the Earth’s rotation, so they stay in the same position on the Earth’s surface at all times.
The plan was to scan from the southern tip of the Hudson Bay to the southern tip of South America at an altitude of 35,800 km over the continental United States and measure carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and methane in the atmosphere. The final estimate for the project was three times the cost originally projected. Originally scheduled for $170 million, it eventually ballooned to $600 million.
At the same time as the mission was abandoned, NASA announced that there was a new greenhouse gas measurement option that was not available when devising the Geocave mission. NASA will favor other greenhouse gas tracking missions, collect greenhouse gas data from global partners, and conduct additional aerial observations, expanding on-going mission OCO-3. Related information this placecan be found in