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According to its operators, a methane tracking satellite supported by the billionaires Jeff Bezos has been lost in space.
The $ 88 million (64 million GBP) methanesate introduced in March 2024 had measured the methane emissions in oil and gas production regions when the signal was lost on June 20.
The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), the non -profit association that operated the satellite, said that he had lost power and was “probably not relaxed”. The last known location was over Norway.
The organization had developed and launched a philanthropic initiative by Amazon with a 100 million dollar grant granted by the Bezos Earth Fund.
Despite the loss, the EDF said in a statement that the mission had created a number of important knowledge of methane emissions.
“The mission was a remarkable success with regard to the scientific and technological performance and its permanent influence on both industry and regulatory authorities worldwide,” the statement said.
“Thanks to methanesat, we have gained critical insights into the distribution and volume of methane, which are released from oil and gas production areas.
“We have also developed an unprecedented ability to interpret the measurements from space and to translate them into volumes from methane. This capacity will be valuable for other missions.”
It is estimated that methane emissions make up about a third of the temperatures induced by humans worldwide.
Methanesat equipped with advanced spectrometers and could recognize metha bridges even at low values in a wide range, what makes it one of the most advanced methane tracking satellites in the world.
The satellite gave several knowledge that significantly increased the understanding of methane emissions worldwide and observed values that were 10 times higher than in some areas.
“Methanesat has created remarkable data,” wrote Project Lead Steven Hamburg in a contribution to LinkedIn in May.
“Methanesat introduces a new era of transparency and problem solving … The mission is ambitious and the space missions are a challenge. But the climate can hardly wait, and we can’t.”
The EDF still has to rule out the possibility of another satellite start in order to continue the work of methanesate.
