NASA cancels GeoCarb greenhouse gas monitoring mission

NASA取消geoocarb温室气体监测任务

WASHINGTON — NASA has canceled a greenhouse gas monitoring mission once intended to fly as a commercial hosted payload after the mission lost its ride to orbit and suffered severe cost overruns.

华盛顿——美国国家航空航天局(NASA)取消了一项温室气体监测任务，该任务原本打算以商业承载有效载荷的形式飞行，此前该任务未能进入轨道，并遭受了严重的成本超支。

NASA announced Nov. 29 it was canceling GeoCarb, a mission the agency selected in 2016 to monitor carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and methane concentrations in the atmosphere over most of North and South America. GeoCarb was part of the Earth Ventures line of small Earth science missions with an original cost cap of about $170 million.

NASA 11月29日宣布取消GeoCarb，该机构2016年选择了一项任务，以监测北美和南美大部分地区大气中的二氧化碳，一氧化碳和甲烷浓度。GeoCarb是Earth Ventures小型地球科学任务的一部分，原始成本上限约为1.7亿美元。

GeoCarb was originally designed to fly as a hosted payload on a commercial geostationary communications satellite. When GeoCarb passed its confirmation review at the end of 2019, NASA planned to work with SES Government Solutions, the subsidiary of satellite operator SES that works with U.S. government customers, to find a suitable host for GeoCarb that would provide coverage over the Americas. At the time, NASA expected GeoCarb to be ready for launch in 2022.

geoocarb最初是作为承载有效载荷在商业地球同步通信卫星上飞行的。当GeoCarb在2019年底通过确认审查时，NASA计划与卫星运营商SES的子公司SES Government Solutions合作，为GeoCarb找到一个合适的主机，覆盖美洲。SES政府解决方案与美国政府客户合作。当时，美国宇航局预计geoocarb将于2022年发射。

In February, though, NASA announced it was no longer pursuing a hosted payload opportunity for GeoCarb. The agency said that market research showed no suitable hosted payload opportunities for the instrument through the end of 2024. Instead, NASA had started a new effort, called the GeoCarb Access to Space (GCATS) project, to procure a spacecraft and launch for the payload.

不过，今年2月，NASA宣布不再为“地球之星”寻求承载有效载荷的机会。该机构表示，市场研究显示，到2024年底，该仪器没有合适的承载有效载荷机会。相反，美国国家航空航天局已经开始了一项新的努力，称为地球飞行器进入太空(GCATS)项目，以获得一艘航天器并发射有效载荷。

However, on Sept. 20 NASA disclosed in a procurement filing that it was canceling the request for proposal for GCATS, but did not a give a reason. NASA spokesperson Tylar Greene later said that NASA elected not to award a contract for GCATS “due to adjustments in the mission timeline and the instrument delivery date.”

然而，9月20日，NASA在一份采购文件中披露，它将取消GCATS的提案请求，但没有给出原因。NASA发言人Tylar Greene后来说，NASA选择不授予GCATS合同，”由于任务时间表和仪器交付日期的调整”。

In NASA’s announcement, the agency cited technical concerns with the mission as well as cost performance and the availability of other sources of greenhouse gas monitoring data as reasons for canceling GeoCarb. The agency said that the estimated lifecycle cost of the mission had grown to more than $600 million, and it had spent $173 million on GeoCarb to date.

在NASA的声明中，该机构提到了取消GeoCarb的原因，包括对该任务的技术担忧、成本性能以及其他温室气体监测数据来源的可用性。该机构表示，该任务的估计生命周期成本已经增长到6亿多美元，迄今为止，它在GeoCarb上已经花费了1.73亿美元。

“Decisions like this are difficult, but NASA is dedicated to making careful choices with the resources provided by the people of the United States,” Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator for science, said in the statement announcing the cancellation. “We look forward to accomplishing our commitment to state-of-the-art climate observation in a more efficient and cost-effective way.”

“这样的决定很困难，但NASA致力于利用美国人民提供的资源做出谨慎的选择，”NASA负责科学的副局长托马斯·祖布臣(Thomas Zurbuchen)在宣布取消计划的声明中说。“我们期待着以更有效和更具成本效益的方式实现我们对最先进的气候观测的承诺。”

That includes extending operations of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3 instrument on the International Space Station, performing more airborne observations and obtaining data from international and commercial partners. In September, NASA awarded a contract to Canadian company GHGSat, which operates several satellites that collect greenhouse gas data, as part of the agency’s Commercial Smallsat Data Acquisition program.

这包括扩大国际空间站上轨道碳观测站3号仪器的运行，进行更多的空中观测，并从国际和商业合作伙伴那里获得数据。今年9月，美国宇航局与加拿大GHGSat公司签订了一份合同，该公司运营几颗收集温室气体数据的卫星，这是该机构商业小卫星数据采集计划的一部分。

NASA said it will also prioritize a greenhouse gas mission as the first in its new Earth System Explorers line of competed Earth science missions, a recommendation of the Earth science decadal survey. NASA plans to issue a formal announcement of opportunity for that first mission in March 2023, with several proposals selected for concept studies in early 2024 and a final selection in mid-2025.

美国国家航空航天局表示，它还将优先考虑温室气体任务，作为其新的地球系统探索者系列竞争地球科学任务的第一个任务，这是地球科学十年调查的建议。NASA计划在2023年3月正式宣布第一次任务的机会，并在2024年初选择几个方案进行概念研究，并在2025年年中进行最终选择。

“We are committed to making key methane and carbon dioxide observations, integrating them with measurements collected by other national, international, and private sector missions, and making actionable information available to communities and organizations who need it to inform their decisions,” Karen St. Germain, NASA Earth science division director, said in the GeoCarb cancellation statement.

”我们致力于进行关键的甲烷和二氧化碳观测，将它们与其他国家、国际和私营部门任务收集的测量数据结合起来，并为需要这些数据的社区和组织提供可操作的信息，为他们的决定提供信息，”NASA地球科学部门主任凯伦·圣·日尔曼(Karen St. Germain)在GeoCarb取消声明中说。