Jeff Bezos-backed $88m methane satellite missing in space

Designed to detect the release of the planetary -heated gas commodity caused by oil and gas production, the satellite of $ 88 million (£ 65 million) disappeared in space with a great mishap for climate efforts.

Methanesat Satellite, which received support from Google and billionaire Jeff Bezos, was released last year at a Elon Musk SpaceX rocket.

To help reduce the worst criminals, it was to collect data for five years in strong greenhouse gas sources, which were responsible for about one -third of human warming.

The Environmental Defense Fund, which controls the satellite, said that communication was disappeared ten days ago and conducting an investigation against what happened right now.

The methane is the most powerful of greenhouse gases and is 28 times stronger for 100 years, although it is not attached in the atmosphere as long as it is carbon dioxide.

Despite an international commitment to reduce methane levels by 30% by 2030, it continues to increase one -year increase. According to the European Space Agency.

Main methane sources are due to food decomposition in the field of oil and gas production, agriculture and regular storage.

However, most of the existing satellites that follow it are specially run and reduce the transparency of the worst criminals for methane release.

Methanesat came after years of development by NGO Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and made most of the data on the market open to the public and allowed to examine it by governments and scientists.

Together, Google and billionaire Jeff Bezos, which contributed $ 88 million to the project, was supported by a technology giants consortium.

Instruments used by the satellite are some of the most sensitive ones in the world that can buy “super -absorbing” sources as well as much smaller sources of methane.

Improvement of sensitivity is important for the detection of release from agriculture, which is much more messy than oil and gas production.

Google, when the project “will” fill the gaps between the existing vehicles, “he said.

The company used artificial intelligence tools to process data and create a global methane map.

However, only a year later in orbit, communication with Methanesat disappeared in what should be a five -year program.

The EDF team suspects that the satellite has lost its power and said in a statement that “probably not recovered”.

He said that some software can be reused, but it was too early to comment on whether a new satellite will be initiated.

“Solving the climate challenge requires brave action and risk, and this satellite was on the front of science, technology and advocacy.”

One of the other large methane data sources that are open to everyone is hosted by the carbon map. One of the data sources is the tropomi instrument on the Sentinel-5P satellite of the European Space Agency. Although he continued to send the data back, his seven -year program had to end in October.

It is unclear how much more information he can continue to collect information by further limiting global efforts to monitor greenhouse gas.