Thales Alenia Space has reached a significant milestone with the successful completion of the MicroCarb satellite ‘assembly, integration, and test’ (AIT), indicating its readiness for launch. The final phases of the satellite’s development were completed at www.ralspace.stfc.ac.uk RAL Space in Oxfordshire; it was subsequently shipped to Thales Alenia Space’s Toulouse facility in France prior to being stored by CNES, the French space agency, until its shipment for launch.

The satellite is designed to quantify sources and sinks of carbon dioxide (CO₂ — the principal greenhouse gas) on a global scale. Currently, a lack of data makes it difficult to measure how much CO₂ is absorbed by and released into the atmosphere, but such information is ‘vital to gain deeper insights into natural carbon fluxes and inform climate models’.

Andrew Griffith, Minister for Space at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, said: “MicroCarb’s advanced technology will deliver invaluable and precise data on our planet’s carbon dioxide levels and marks the latest exciting innovation by the UK’s groundbreaking space sector in collaboration with our friends in France. Once operational, MicroCarb will inform businesses and decision-makers around the world on the role they can play in tackling climate change; and as the technology develops, open new avenues for UK businesses that grow our economy.”

The mission marks a major step for Europe towards establishing a system to monitor global CO₂ fluxes, a system that will enable scientists to estimate concentrations of CO₂ in the atmosphere to around one molecule per million molecules of dry air (1ppm). This is thanks to an instrument, known as a passive spectrometer, that can measure quantities of carbon absorbed by ecosystems to reveal more about the exchange mechanisms at work and how they are being affected by climate change.

CNES was tasked by the French government with overseeing and executing the MicroCarb mission, in partnership with the UK Space Agency and the European Union, which are providing additional funding (£13.9 million from the UK Space Agency). CNES chose Airbus Defence & Space in Toulouse to design and build the instrument and the satellite is built around the agency’s ‘Myriade microsatellite bus’.

Paul Bate, the UK Space Agency’s chief executive, said: “MicroCarb’s departure to France is an exciting next step in its journey to space, where it will gather crucial information to improve our understanding of the carbon landscape of our planet and the impact of CO₂, which is the main greenhouse gas caused by human activity. Over half of the critical measurements on climate change rely on satellite data and it is a testament to the expertise of UK scientists and engineers –— both at Harwell Space Cluster and throughout the country — that we are playing a central role in such an important mission.”