NASA, partners target megacities carbon emissions

Artist's concept of the LA Megacities Carbon Project observing system. 

Ground sensors atop towers and buildings measure carbon dioxide, methane and carbon monoxide. 

An instrument atop Mt. Wilson scans the basin multiple times daily. 

Aircraft, mobile laboratories and satellites round out the network. 

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Driving down busy Interstate 5 in Los Angeles in a nondescript blue Toyota Prius, Riley Duren of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, is a man on a mission as he surveys the vast urban jungle sprawled around him.

In his trunk, a luggage-sized air-sampling instrument sniffs the outside air through a small tube to measure the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane.

While not a very efficient way to study urban emissions, the ground data being collected are helping Duren and his team build confidence in greenhouse gas measurements taken from aircraft and satellites, which can cover large areas more effectively.

At the next exit, Duren pulls over to admire a scene most Angelenos would try to ignore: a large landfill stretched alongside the freeway.

The instrument in the trunk quickly detects a large plume of methane emanating from the landfill.

A NASA aircraft soon appears overhead, carrying a prototype satellite instrument that records high-resolution images of methane that scientists can use to identify gas plumes.

The pilot buzzes the landfill several times to capture images of the invisible gas, then the plane departs and Duren heads off to his next study area.

The instruments in the Prius and airplane are just two of many elements of the Megacities Carbon Project, an international, multi-agency pilot initiative to develop and test ways to monitor greenhouse gas emissions in megacities: metropolitan areas of at least 10 million people.

Cities and their power plants are the largest sources of human-produced greenhouse gas emissions and are the largest human contributors to climate change.

Duren is principal investigator for the LA component of the Megacities Carbon Project.

He hopes to work with international partners to deploy a global urban carbon monitoring system that will eventually allow local policymakers to fully account for the many sources and sinks, or storage sites, of carbon and how they change over time.

Preliminary estimate of annual on-road carbon dioxide emissions in 2010 for the five counties of the LA megacity, based on annual average weekly traffic data and modeled annual carbon dioxide emissions for different road types. 

A close-up view of southern LA County is at lower left. 

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Arizona State University

Los Angeles and Paris are pilot cities in the initiative. Efforts are underway to add other cities around the world.

When fully established in late 2014, the LA network will consist of 15 monitoring stations around the LA basin.

Most will use commercially available high-precision greenhouse gas analyzers to continuously sample local air.

The LA network encompasses the portions of the South Coast Air Basin that produce the most intense greenhouse gas emissions in California.

Megacities scientists will also periodically take to the road and to the skies to collect mobile measurements of the local atmosphere to better define individual emissions sources and environmental conditions.

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ESA countries and partners commit to support ISS Exploitation programme to 2020

ESA Member States participating in the International Space Station (ISS) exploitation programme have decided to concur with the ISS partners' objective to extend the duration of their involvement in ISS cooperation until the end of 2020.

Participating States have committed €550 million to cover the period until the next Ministerial Council of ESA in 2012, where they will make new financial commitments.

This decision provides the framework for new development activities aimed especially at fulfilling Europe's obligations towards the financing of its part of the exploitation costs of the ISS.Therefore, opening the door to future industrial developments to be undertaken by EADS, DLR and other European industry partners.

The Council also adopted a Resolution on transparency and short-term measures for European launchers exploitation.

ESA Member States reaffirmed the need to maintain an independent, reliable, cost-effective and affordable access to space for Europe. All this is good news for Arianespace.

The adoption of this Resolution was accompanied by relevant financial commitments from ESA Member States participating in the Ariane 5 development programme to ensure that ESA-owned infrastructure, on which the Ariane 5 exploitation relies, is run and maintained operationally until the next Ministerial Council in 2012. Participating States committed €222.5 million for that purpose.

Finally, the Council approved the proposal by ESA's Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain of a new team of Directors who will accompany him in dealing with the new challenges for ESA in the years to come.

Russian Monopoly on Space Uplift to ISS has increased financial impact on NASA, ESA and partners

Russia, which is set to hold a monopoly on flights to the international space station (ISS), wants to charge more for rides on its Soyuz rocket, the space agency head said Tuesday.

"At a meeting of the space agency chiefs in Tokyo, I want to discuss the maintenance of transport to the station," Roskomos head Anatoly Perminov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.

"We have an agreement until 2012 that Russia will be responsible for this. But after that? Excuse me but the prices should be absolutely different then!"

When NASA retires its long-serving shuttle fleet as planned later this year, the United States and other countries will be wholly dependent on Russia to fly the station's six-man crew to and from orbit.

NASA has signed a deal worth 306 million dollars (224 million euros) with Roskomos for six rides to the ISS in 2012 and 2013, or a charge of 51 million dollars per US astronaut.

But with space now limited aboard the Soyuz rocket, Russia looks set to curb its lucrative space tourism service, for which it had charged cosmos-crazed tycoons 35 million dollars (28 million euros) for the ultimate adventure.

The floating ISS research station was to be closed in 2015 and ditched in ocean like its predecessor the Russian Mir station, but the 16 countries involved are in talks to extend the station's life to 2020.

NASA: Partners with Saudi Arabia for Moon Exloration and Exploitation

NASA Partners with Saudi Arabia on Moon and Asteroid Research WASHINGTON -- NASA and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) have signed a joint statement that allows for collaboration in lunar and asteroid science research.

The partnership recognizes the Saudi Lunar and Near-Earth Object Science Center as an affiliate partner with the NASA Lunar Science Institute at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.

"This collaboration is within the scope of the Memorandum of Understanding on Science and Technology signed between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States of America last year and later ratified by the Council of Ministers," said H.H. Dr. Turki Bin Saud Bin Mohammed Al-Saud, vice president for Research Institutes, KACST.

"The international interest in lunar science and, more recently, near Earth objects led to the establishment of the Saudi Lunar and Near Earth Object Science Center as a focal point for lunar science and NEO studies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, we are looking forward to our expanding collaboration with NASA for the benefit of both countries."

"NASA's Lunar Science Institute exists to conduct cutting-edge lunar science and train the next generation of lunar scientists and explorers," said Greg Schmidt, institute deputy director at Ames.

"Our international partnerships are critical for meeting these objectives, and we are very excited by the important science, training and education that our new Saudi colleagues bring to the NASA Lunar Science Institute."

"This is an important advance in our growing program of bilateral science and technology cooperation," said U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia James Smith. "It will help realize President Obama's goal, expressed in his June 4 speech to the Muslim world, of increasing our cooperation on science and technology, which we believe closely corresponds to King Abdullah's vision."

The Saudi science center's proposal brings technical and engineering expertise to advance the broad goals of lunar science at the institute. Specific areas of lunar study of both scientific and cultural importance include radar and infrared imaging, laser ranging and imaging, and topographical studies.

The center's studies in near-Earth object science also offer important contributions to an area of importance to NASA.

"The Saudi Lunar and Near Earth Object Science Center's primary mission is to direct all lunar and near Earth object related research within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," said Dr. Haithem Altwaijry, deputy director of the National Satellite Technology Program at KACST.

"It will reach out to students in addition to researchers and present fertile ground for scientific research."

"NASA welcomes international cooperation for mutual benefit with organizations large and small in all regions of the world," said Michael O'Brien, assistant administrator for external relations at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Our continuing discussions with Saudi Arabian officials may lead to future joint scientific collaboration in other areas of mutual interest."

Space station partners assess logistics needs beyond 2015

Japan's HTV leaving the ISS

Space officials in Europe and Japan are considering plans to build and launch additional indigenous cargo ships to the International Space Station if the program is extended beyond 2015.

Although NASA has only budgeted for station operations until 2015, the independent Augustine commission recommended continuing the program through at least 2020.

"The Augustine commission made that recommendation, so we're waiting for our government as well as the governments of the other agencies, who have a great interest in seeing the extension of the International Space Station program, to get maximum use of their modules extended beyond 2015," said John Uri, NASA's lead scientist for the station.

If the station's life is extended, more cargo missions will be necessary to serve logistics needs for crews aboard the outpost, according to Bernardo Patti, ESA's space station program manager.

"It's clear from the Augustine commission that they want the station extended beyond 2015," Patti said. "That would require more logistics services for ISS."

Four more flights of the European Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle are planned through 2015. Six more Japanese H-2 Transfer Vehicle missions are also on tap through the rest of the station program.

"We may have more (ATVs) after that," Patti said. "It just depends on how long the station is operating and its needs."

Japanese officials may also ask for funding to fly extra HTVs to the station, but their request may face steeper opposition.

"We hope to increase the budget for the researchers and also the H-2B and HTV for the future of our space missions. Right now, we are discussing in the Japanese government about the future plan of our next generation for future exploration and also the ISS extension," said Naoki Nagai, deputy director of the Japanese space agency's Houston office.

A Japanese government panel has singled out the country's space program for potential budget cuts. The Government Revitalization Unit spent more than a week screening budget requests of Japanese government agencies and advised reducing funding by 10 percent for the HTV program.

The tight budget environment could make it difficult for Japanese space officials to expand the agency's mission portfolio, including adding more HTV missions or upgrading the spacecraft.

The unit price tag for each HTV is around $200 million, excluding the cost of the H-2B rocket. An ATV spacecraft costs about $300 million, not including the Ariane 5 rocket or mission costs.

ESA's ATV in full configuration with Solar Cells deployed
Patti said he hopes more ATV spacecraft can be procured if the station operates past 2015. A senior-level meeting of representatives from ESA member states is scheduled for late 2010 to set the agency's budget priorities for the next few years.

"We will ask for more funding for additional ATVs if that happens," Patti said.

ESA is already studying modifying the ATV with a heat shield to return equipment from the space station. Next year's Ministerial Council meeting could also decide whether to implement such a program.

ATV cargo ships are manufactured by EADS Astrium in Bremen, Germany. The HTV spacecraft is built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

The European and Japanese ships have each flown to the station once, completing highly successful maiden flights to test out their designs and deliver supplies to the complex.

The ATV and HTV can haul food, water, air, propellants, spare parts and science experiments to the space station.

More Russian Progress freighters and U.S. commercial supply flights would also be likely if station activities continue until 2020.