NASA's New Carbon-Counting Instrument Leaves the Nest

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 PHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Alan Buis 818-354-0474
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Alan.buis@jpl.nasa.gov

News release: 2012-134 May 10, 2012

NASA's New Carbon-Counting Instrument Leaves the Nest

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-134&cid=release_2012-134

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/ and http://www.nasa.gov/oco .


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