OCO-2 and ASCENDS

A satellite that is central to this cart is OCO-2, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory. (It’s numbered 2 because the original OCO spacecraft suffered a launch failure and crashed in 2009.) OCO-2 launched on July 2, 2014, and is the first NASA spacecraft constructed to measure carbon in the atmosphere. With data from OCO-2, scientists hope to measure natural carbon flux between sources and sinks—for instance, how much carbon is exchanged between the ocean and atmosphere in a year. By looking at natural seasonal variation, scientists will also be able to measure anthropogenic sources of carbon.

OCO-2 passively senses carbon. NASA scientists are currently working on developing technology for actively sensing carbon in a mission called ASCENDS (Active Sensing of CO2 Emissions over Nights, Days, and Seasons). Actively sensing carbon would allow scientists to measure carbon during the night time, which would improve scientists’ overall understanding of how carbon levels change over time. Scientists hope to launch ASCENDS while OCO-2 is still active, because data from both satellites would provide a better overall picture of carbon in our atmosphere. At the time of writing this cart guide (June, 2015), the ASCENDS satellite has not yet been built and a launch date has not yet been set, but experiments and studies on engineering the equipment are still being performed.

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Parts of a Satellite | Maneuvering | Power Supply | Thermal Controls | Communications Devices | OCO-2 and ASCENDS | NASA Missions