By Eloise Gibson of RNZ
The taxpayer-funded climate satellite MethaneSat has lost contact with the ground and “is likely not recoverable”.
“While this is difficult news, it is not the end of the overall MethaneSat effort, or of our work to slash methane emissions,” said a statement released by the Environmental Defence Fund (EDF), the US group behind the satellite.
MethaneSat was given $29 million from the New Zealand Government, with the aim of growing the space industry.
The mission’s goal was to name and shame oil and gas producers that were allowing planet-heating methane to escape into the atmosphere.
But it has been plagued by delays, initially to its launch date and then to the arrival of its promised data about global methane emissions.
The University of Auckland has been waiting to take over the mission control at its new, partly taxpayer-funded Te Pūnaha Ātea Space Institute.
The announcement of the satellite’s demise came just two days after the latest deadline for handing control over to university staff and students.
RNZ has been asking about problems with the satellite since September.
In May, the mission’s chief scientist said more intense solar activity because of a peak in the sun’s magnetic cycle had been causing MethaneSat to go into safe mode.
The satellite had to be carefully restarted every time.
There had also been a problem with one of the satellite’s three thrusters, which maintain its altitude and steer the spacecraft.
It had been thought that MethaneSat could operate fully on two thrusters.
The new information helps explain why control of the satellite had to be handed back to its manufacturers in Colorado in March, instead of going straight from Rocket Lab to the University of Auckland as planned.
The university had said it would still operate the mission control from a delayed start date of June, and staff had been involved in day-to-day tasks before the full handover.
The ability to learn from operating the satellite was a major rationale for the Government’s investment, after early hopes that it would reveal new information about New Zealand’s methane emissions proved incorrect.
New Zealand scientists had raised questions about what they saw as a lack of transparency with the New Zealand public about delays to the satellite’s data.
The EDF, the environmental non-profit behind the satellite mission, told RNZ in October that the spacecraft was performing as expected and there were no “notable or particular complications outside the realm of what would be anticipated”.
But just a few months later, after more questions from RNZ, MethaneSat announced that control of the satellite had been transferred back to its maker, Blue Canyon Technologies, so it could fix “challenges”.
When RNZ previously asked the EDF if its response in October had been true, it said the issues were “teething problems” and nothing beyond what was expected.
“MethaneSat experienced the sort of teething problems that one would encounter with any new mission using a new platform (bus), but nothing outside the bounds of what was to be expected. The expectation was that developing an efficient, well-honed set of operating procedures takes time,” it said.
It acknowledged in October that the process was taking longer than expected, particularly commissioning the thrusters.
However, it did not disclose the issue with the satellite having to be brought out of safe mode until RNZ asked a list of specific questions.
In March, Space Minister Judith Collins was asked about the mission’s problems – but told Parliament she could not say because of confidentiality.
In February, the Government’s Space Agency also cited the need for confidentiality when it declined to answer questions from RNZ about what was wrong.
University of Auckland astrophysicist Richard Easther was among the critics of the mission’s lack of communication about its problems.
On Wednesday, he said New Zealand needed a “no-blame” review to understand “how New Zealand blew past so many red flags about MethaneSat’s operation”.
“This is a tragedy for the people here who worked hard on it, and for New Zealand science.”
He said the mission “kept pumping out upbeat comms even after it became apparent that the spacecraft had major problems which in many cases appear to have been present since launch”.
“On Friday, June 20, the MethaneSat mission operations lost contact with MethaneSat.
“After pursuing all options to restore communications, we learned this morning that the satellite has lost power, and that it is likely not recoverable.
“While this is difficult news, it is not the end of the overall MethaneSat effort, or of our work to slash methane emissions.
“Launched in March 2024, MethaneSat had been collecting methane emissions data over the past year. It was one of the most advanced methane-tracking satellites in space, measuring methane emissions in oil and gas producing regions across the world.
“The mission has been a remarkable success in terms of scientific and technological accomplishment, and for its lasting influence on both industry and regulators worldwide.
“The engineering team is conducting a thorough investigation into the loss of communication. This is expected to take time. We will share what we learn.
“Thanks to MethaneSat, we have gained critical insight about the distribution and volume of methane being released from oil and gas production areas.
“We have also developed an unprecedented capability to interpret the measurements from space and translate them into volumes of methane released.
“This capacity will be valuable to other missions.
“EDF and MethaneSat remain firmly committed to our core purpose of turning data into action to protect the climate, including reducing methane emissions from the global oil and gas industry.
“The advanced spectrometers developed specifically for MethaneSat met or exceeded all expectations throughout the mission. In combination with the mission algorithms and software, we showed that the highly sensitive instrument could see total methane emissions, even at low levels, over wide areas, including both large sources (super emitters) and the smaller ones that account for a large share of total methane emissions, which were not visible from space until MethaneSat.
“EDF and MethaneSat remain firmly committed to our core purpose of turning data into action to protect the climate, including reducing methane emissions from the global oil and gas industry.
“We will be working with partners around the world to leverage the algorithms and associated software as well as the now-proven, high-precision technology that was developed as part of the MethaneSat mission so the world has access to high-quality, actionable greenhouse gas emissions data on a global basis.
“We will continue to process data that we have retrieved from the satellite and will be releasing additional scenes of global oil and gas production region-scale emissions over the coming months.
“To solve the climate challenge requires bold action and risk-taking and this satellite was at the leading edge of science, technology and advocacy.
“We also will continue to work closely with our partners to reduce methane emissions and implement the goals of the Global Methane Pledge, the Oil and Gas Decarbonisation Charter, Oil and Gas Methane Partnership 2.0, the United Nations Environment Programme’s International Emissions Observatory and Climate and Clean Air Coalition, and so many other efforts this mission was designed to support.”
– RNZ