A $273 million dollar satellite fails to reach orbit, crashes into ocean.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... I&refer=us
Musta been another "misaligned sensor"...Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) -- A satellite launched from California failed to reach orbit today, crashing into the sea near Antarctica and dooming a $273 million mission to study global- warming gases.
“The mission is lost,” National Aeronautics and Space Administration spokesman Steve Cole said in a telephone interview from the launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California...
NASA’s investment was $273 million for the design, development and launch operations. Insurance details on the mission may be given later today, NASA said.
Carbon ‘Sinks’
The craft contained a monitoring device designed to collect 8 million measurements every 16 days. Scientists hoped to use the data to find out how much carbon dioxide is absorbed by the forests, grasslands and oceans, which are collectively known as “sinks.”
Man-made carbon dioxide, which traps heat in the atmosphere, is largely produced by power plants, vehicle engines and factories.
The data gleaned from the satellite was intended to help guide government global-warming policy, NASA said...
Natural Sources
Technology allows scientists to distinguish between carbon dioxide that is generated by humans and that which is emitted from natural sources such as decaying plants, according to NASA.
Between 1751 and 2003, human activities released 626 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere, NASA said. Yet only about 192 billion tons of the gas remained in the atmosphere, according to the agency.
Helping to find out where the missing carbon dioxide went was one of the satellite’s missions.
Satellites? We don't need no stinking satellites!
Seriously, why spend hundreds of millions and utilize scientific method to gather data when NASA could just turn to Planet Gore TV and get all the answers to Global Warming, er, I meant Climate Change.
