NZ Says "Enough of This Shit" – Launches Satellite to Track Methane

New Zealand's Space Agency has made its first foray into space with a satellite whose mission is to address a very old economic issue: the creation of methane by the country's 25 million sheep and almost four million cows.

This month, the MethaneSAT mission was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon rocket from the Vandenburg Space Force Base in California, marking a significant milestone for New Zealand's space industry.

This is despite the MethaneSAT payload being too big and heavy to be launched by the locally developed Rocket Lab Electron vehicle. This company is at the pointy end of New Zealand's burgeoning space industry.

Even so, Rocket Lab is providing mission control for the project alongside the New Zealand Space Agency and the U.S.-based Environmental Defence Fund (EDF).

Harvard University was also involved in the project, and Google Cloud will provide the computing capabilities. The first results will be publicly available later this year.

The MethaneSAT aims to quantify methane emissions across geographical expanses and to focus locally on particular locations and industries, such as New Zealand agriculture.

Dr. Sara Mikaloff-Fletcher, the agricultural program's science leader, says the state-of-the-art satellite is unique because it can measure over a large area and map methane with high spatial resolution and unprecedented precision.

“MethaneSAT will give us the type of data that we could never get from ground-based measurements. It will map methane over 200-by-200-kilometer regions and detect as few as two parts of methane per billion when averaged over a 1 km spatial resolution.

“MethaneSAT will be the first satellite well suited to quantifying diffuse agricultural emissions due to its high precision and spatial resolution. We have the opportunity to be the first team to develop and prove this capability worldwide," says Dr. Mikaloff-Fletcher.

According to MethaneSAT partners, methane emissions are far worse than previously believed. In the U.S., scientists and industry experts examined the oil and gas supply chain and quantified emissions at 8.1Mmt per year, "far greater than government estimates suggest."

The EDF aims to bring accountability to the more than 50 oil and gas companies that have pledged to zero out methane and eliminate gas flaring.

Growing ecosystem

While significant international participation is in MethaneSAT, the New Zealand space industry will remain closely involved.

The country might not be the first to think of space, but even back in 2019, the last time such a survey was done, Deloitte quantified the space industry as contributing NZD1.69B to the economy, comprising total employment of 12,000 full-time jobs.

Rocket Lab has emerged as the flagship for that ecosystem. For MethaneSAT, the company created the algorithms and operations for the satellite’s orbit, and control will soon be passed on to the University of Auckland’s Space Institute and its Mission Operations and Control Center.

“MethaneSAT will give us the type of data that we could never get from ground-based measurements.”

The University is contributing to the space ecosystem by developing a satellite testing facility and the capability to manufacture satellite components.

The pinnacle of New Zealand's space capability remains the NASDAQ-listed Rocket Lab business, which aims to capture a portion of the estimated USD320 billion market in space services.

Rocket Lab has its rocket technology, Electron, and a launch facility constructed on the Mahia Peninsula on the North Island. More than 40 Electron rockets have been launched, and a giant rocket called Neutron is planned for launch next year.

While it remains closely aligned with its Kiwi origins, the company has moved its base to California to be closer to its most significant potential source of customers, including the U.S. Defense agencies, with which it also has several contracts.

The company recently won a U.S. government contract worth more than USD500 million to build 18 satellites, leveraging the Photon satellite platform, which is versatile enough to launch different payloads from various clients.

Trans-Tasman collaboration

New Zealand and Australia are historic rivals in sports. Still, the respective space industries have understood they are too small to compete alone and that cooperation can bring mutual benefits.

Earlier this year, the New Zealand Space Agency signed a deal with Australia's SmartSat Co-operative Research Center to accelerate the industry's growth on both sides of the Tasman.

Australian startup incubator Stone & Chalk also recently moved across the Tasman and set up a facility there. Space startups are on the scouting list.

U.S. company LeoLabs has established a tracking facility for space junk in the Otago region of the South Island. The company recently hosted a global conference on space junk there, the Orbital Debris Summit.

New Zealand aims to grow the space industry to be worth NZD10 billion by 2030, representing a growth of more than 500% over a decade.

In a country that regularly performs above its weight in just about everything it attempts, it would be risky to bet against a nation that has geographical advantages, an educated workforce, and a lifestyle that continues to attract the world's best and brightest.

Image credit: iStockphoto/Sharkyjones