NASA's New Carbon-Counting Instrument Leaves the Nest
NASA's first mission dedicated to studying atmospheric carbon dioxide moves a step closer to reality with the shipment of its JPL-built science instrument.
PASADENA, Calif. - Its construction now complete, the  science instrument that is the heart of NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2  (OCO-2) spacecraft - NASA's first mission dedicated to studying atmospheric  carbon dioxide - has left its nest at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in  Pasadena, Calif., and has arrived at its integration and test site in Gilbert,  Ariz.A truck carrying the OCO-2 instrument left JPL before  dawn on Tuesday, May 9, to begin the trek to Orbital Science Corporation's  Satellite Manufacturing Facility in Gilbert, southeast of Phoenix, where it  arrived that afternoon. The instrument will be unpacked, inspected and tested.  Later this month, it will be integrated with the Orbital-built OCO-2 spacecraft  bus, which arrived in Gilbert on April 30.Once technicians ensure the spacecraft is clean of  any contaminants, the observatory's integration and test campaign will kick  off. That campaign will be conducted in two parts, with the first part scheduled  for completion in October. The observatory will then be stored in Gilbert for  about nine months while the launch vehicle is prepared. The integration and  test campaign will then resume, with completion scheduled for spring 2014.  OCO-2 will then be shipped to Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., in preparation  for a launch as early as the summer of 2014."The OCO-2 instrument looks great, and its delivery  to Orbital's Gilbert, Ariz., facility is a big step forward in successfully  launching and operating the mission in space," said Ralph Basilio, OCO-2  project manager at JPL.OCO-2 is the latest mission in NASA's study of the  global carbon cycle. Carbon dioxide is the most significant human-produced  greenhouse gas and the principal human-produced driver of climate change. The  original OCO mission was lost shortly after launch on Feb. 24, 2009, when the  Taurus XL launch vehicle carrying it malfunctioned and failed to reach orbit.The experimental OCO-2 mission, which is part of NASA's  Earth System Science Pathfinder Program, will uniformly sample the atmosphere  above Earth's land and ocean, collecting more than half a million measurements  of carbon dioxide concentration over Earth's sunlit hemisphere every day for at  least two years. It will do so with the accuracy, resolution and coverage  needed to provide the first complete picture of the regional-scale geographic  distribution and seasonal variations of both human and natural sources of  carbon dioxide emissions and their sinks-the places where carbon dioxide is  removed from the atmosphere and stored.Scientists will use OCO-2 mission data to improve  global carbon cycle models, better characterize the processes responsible for  adding and removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and make more accurate  predictions of global climate change.The mission provides a key new measurement that can  be combined with other ground and aircraft measurements and satellite data to  answer important questions about the processes that regulate atmospheric carbon  dioxide and its role in the carbon cycle and climate. This information could  help policymakers and business leaders make better decisions to ensure climate  stability and retain our quality of life. The mission will also serve as a  pathfinder for future long-term satellite missions to monitor carbon dioxide.Each of the OCO-2 instrument's three high-resolution  spectrometers spreads reflected sunlight into its various colors like a prism,  focusing on a different, narrow color range to detect light with the specific colors  absorbed by carbon dioxide and molecular oxygen. The amount of light absorbed  at these specific colors is proportional to the concentration of carbon dioxide  in the atmosphere. Scientists will use these data in computer models to  quantify global carbon dioxide sources and sinks.OCO-2 is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission  Directorate, Washington. Orbital Sciences Corporation, Dulles, Va., built the  spacecraft and provides mission operations under JPL's leadership. The  California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.For more information on OCO-2, visit:http://oco.jpl.nasa.gov/andhttp://www.nasa.gov/oco.