NASA and SRON sign agreement for SPEXone aerosol instrument on PACE space mission

NASA and SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research have signed the agreement in which The Netherlands contributes to the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, Ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite with the SPEXone instrument. SPEXone will map properties of aerosol in our atmosphere with unprecedented accuracy. This provides answers to large open questions regarding Earth's climate. SPEXone brings the 'A' in PACE.

Gilbert Kirkham, NASA's Science Director of International and Interagency Relations, signed on behalf of NASA. Michael Wise, SRON's General and Scientific Director, signed on behalf of the Dutch parties in SPEXone.

Aerosols

Together with consortium partner Airbus Defense and Space Netherlands, SRON is responsible for the development of the SPEXone instrument, with support from TNO's opto-mechanical expertise. SPEXone is a compact instrument, weighing less than 10 kg, and is full of optical innovations that have never been used in a space instrument before. This enables SPEXone to determine the influence of different aerosol properties on the Earth's climate with unprecedented accuracy. SRON has the scientific lead of the project. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is responsible for the construction, launch and operation of the PACE satellite.

Responsibilities

The signing officially establishes the mutual responsibilities of a collaboration that has been going on already for quite some time. This includes the delivery of SPEXone by SRON and partners to NASA and the launch and operation of the ground station by NASA. Further agreements concern the definition and development of mechanical/thermal, electrical and data interfaces between the PACE satellite and SPEXone, integration of SPEXone into the PACE satellite, pre-launch tests, data processing, hardware infrastructure, data archiving and distribution of scientific data. NASA takes part in reviews during the development phases of SPEXone.

Delivery of SPEXone to NASA is scheduled for the end of 2020. The scheduled launch of PACE is at the end of 2022.

SPEXone is made possible by a Dutch investment of fourteen million euros. The Netherlands Space Office first paid two and later another seven million euros. Other funding comes from the Dutch Research Council (NWO), SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research and Airbus Defense and Space Netherlands. In addition to the OCI instrument, NASA provides the satellite, the integration of the instruments on the satellite, the launch and the infrastructure on the ground. The HARP-2 instrument is supplied by the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).

Provided by SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research