NASA Cancels GeoCarb Emissions Monitoring Mission

Except now it won’t. After a few weeks of paperwork, NASA has officially canceled the GeoCarb mission as it said it likely would in late November. The mission, which was first announced in January 2018, will no longer launch this decade as originally planned.

NASA officials say the University of Oklahoma and Lockheed Martin collaboration would’ve been too resource-intensive to carry out, especially when compared with emissions-monitoring technologies that weren’t available during the mission’s formation. While GeoCarb was estimated to carry a total lifetime cost of $170.9 million back in 2018, that figure is now believed to hover around $600 million, making the project far less financially viable than it was once thought to be. Launching GeoCarb would also reportedly impart a two-year delay on NASA’s Earth System Observatory, which is considered a higher priority thanks to its more comprehensive output.

“Decisions like this are difficult, but NASA is dedicated to making careful choices with the resources provided by the people of the United States,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA HQ, in the agency’s November statement. “We look forward to accomplishing our commitment to state-of-the-art climate observation in a more efficient and cost-effective way.”

NASA’s newer alternatives include two pieces of equipment that joined the International Space Station (ISS) in 2019 and July 2022, respectively. The first is the Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3 (OCO-3), which uses an array of swiveling mirrors to capture carbon mini-maps spanning 1,000 square miles at a time. The other is Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT), an imaging spectrometer that maps the mineral dust composition of Earth’s arid regions to help scientists study how dust affects climate. The Earth System Observatory will also support researchers’ work to better understand climate change, natural disasters, and the holistic effects of modern agriculture.

NASA hopes to direct the resources that would’ve originally gone to GeoCarb to these programs as it pursues further insight into Earth’s climate. It’ll also direct some funds toward the Earth System Explorers program, which conducts space science investigations based on specific targets devised each decade.

Continue reading

SpaceX Cancels Starship High-Altitude Test at Last Second

SpaceX says the cancellation was due to abnormal readings from one of the rocket's three Raptor engines. There are more potential launch windows coming up, but it's unclear what went wrong and how long it'll take to fix.

Star Citizen Developer Unveils New Roadmap, Cancels Squadron 42 Beta

Cloud Imperium Games has canceled the Squadron 42 beta that was supposed to debut before the end of 2020, with no current plan or timeline for launching it.

Terraria Dev Cancels Stadia Version After Getting Locked Out of Google Account

Re-Logic co-founder Andrew Spinks says Google has banned his account, locking him out of thousands worth of dollars in content. His response is to cancel Terraria for Stadia.

Microsoft Reportedly Cancels Window 10X Launch

According to a report from Petri.com, Microsoft has shelved its slimmed-down Windows 10X operating system. Instead, it will focus on an upcoming redesign for Windows 10.