NASA Cancels GeoCarb Emissions Monitoring Mission

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.

NASA Cancels GeoCarb Emissions Monitoring Mission

“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, NASA Send 4 Astronauts to ISS in First Commercial Crew Mission
SpaceX, NASA Send 4 Astronauts to ISS in First Commercial Crew Mission

After years of development, the Commercial Crew Program has succeeded.

Hayabusa2 Spacecraft Completes Mission, Returns Asteroid Sample to Earth
Hayabusa2 Spacecraft Completes Mission, Returns Asteroid Sample to Earth

After six years in space, the Hayabusa2 sample container landed on Earth, providing scientists with the first significant samples collected directly from an asteroid.

Asteroid Mission Successfully Collected Samples, Japan Confirms
Asteroid Mission Successfully Collected Samples, Japan Confirms

Japan's Hayabusa2 mission wrapped up last week when the sample container parachuted down in Australia. The mission certainly looked like a success at every step along the way, but the true test is whether or not it collected the sample it flew out there to get.

Astronomers Have Detected a Planet’s Radio Emissions 51 Light-Years Away
Astronomers Have Detected a Planet’s Radio Emissions 51 Light-Years Away

The researchers claim this marks the first time an exoplanet has been detected in the radio bands.