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WASHINGTON — A nearly $1 billion mission to study Earth’s oceans and atmosphere is now ready for launch after surviving several attempts to abort it early in its development.
Falcon 9 is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40 on February 6 at 1:33 a.m. ET. The vehicle will be placed into sun-synchronous orbit on NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, and Marine Ecosystems, or PACE, spacecraft.
PACE carries three instruments designed to study clouds and aerosols in the atmosphere as well as the ocean. The main instrument, the Ocean Color Instrument (OCI), provides information about the color of the ocean from ultraviolet to infrared wavelengths. It is accompanied by the Hyper Angular Research Polarimeter (HARP2) and the Spectro-polarimeter for Planetary Exploration (SPEXone), which provide data on atmospheric clouds and aerosols and support atmospheric correction of OCI data.
“PACE will significantly advance our understanding of how our oceans function and how they relate to the broader Earth system and a changing climate.” said Karen St. Germain, director of NASA’s Earth Science Division, at a press conference on February 4. About the mission.
PACE’s main focus is the study of sea surface phytoplankton. This includes being able to distinguish between phytoplankton species, said PACE project scientist Jeremy Weldel. “Now you can see where the harmful stuff is, where the beneficial stuff is, and where the beneficial stuff is moving.”
Scientists plan to supplement the PACE data with data from other Earth science missions, such as the Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT) spacecraft. “SWOT tells us more about how the ocean moves, such as its height. PACE gives us information about what lives in those surface oceans.” ,” said Kate Calvin, NASA’s chief scientist and senior climate advisor.
Data from PACE will also help track different types of aerosols in the atmosphere, such as sea spray, smoke, and desert dust. This helps monitor air quality and its impact on human health, atmosphere-ecosystem interactions, and cloud formation. “It’s very dynamic, and the only way we can do this is in space,” said PACE atmospheric scientist Andy Thayer.
PACE’s design life is three years, but St. Germain said NASA expects the mission to last much longer because the 1,700-kilogram spacecraft has enough propellant and other consumables to last at least 10 years. He said he expected it to continue. “We wish PACE a long life.”
After launch, PACE will undergo a commissioning period that is expected to last 60 days, and “first light” data will be released in about 40 to 50 days, Werdel said at a news conference on Jan. 17. All data from PACE will be available to the public without any period of exclusivity to the mission’s science team.
PACE had a total cost of $964 million, including reserves, and was subject to budget cuts by the Trump administration early in its development. All four NASA budget proposals for fiscal years 2018 through 2021 called for canceling PACE. Congress rejected the cuts all four times and restored funding to the mission.
“It’s been a long, strange journey,” Werdel said at a press conference on February 4, when asked about the proposed cancellation. “We had the utmost confidence that we would find a way to endure. The community wanted all of this.”
“One of the reasons we are sitting here today is because we have a large stakeholder community that understands the potential impact of PACE and supports us moving forward,” said Saint-Germain.
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