Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3
The Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3 (OCO-3) is a NASA-JPL instrument designed to measure carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere. The instrument is mounted on the Japanese Experiment Module-Exposed Facility on board the International Space Station (ISS). OCO-3 was scheduled to be transported to space by a SpaceX Dragon from a Falcon 9 rocket on 30 April 2019, but the launch was delayed to 3 May, due to problems with the space station's electrical power system. This launch was further delayed to 4 May due to electrical issues aboard Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY), the barge used to recover the Falcon 9’s first stage. OCO-3 was launched as part of CRS-17 on 4 May 2019 at 06:48 UTC. The nominal mission lifetime is ten years.
The Japanese Experiment Module, EFU 3 is the occupied location second from the left. | |
| Operator | NASA |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
| Instrument type | Grating spectrometer |
| Function | Atmospheric CO2 and SIF |
| Mission duration | 10 years (nominal) Elapsed: 4 years, 9 months, 8 days |
| Website | www |
| Properties | |
| Mass | 500 kg (1,100 lb) |
| Dimensions | 1.85 × 1.0 × 0.8 m (6.1 × 3.3 × 2.6 ft) |
| Power consumption | 600 W |
| Resolution | Less than 4 km2 (1.5 sq mi) |
| Spectral band | 2.06 microns 1.61 microns 0.765 microns |
| Data rate | 8 footprints, 3 Hz (24 per second) |
| Host spacecraft | |
| Spacecraft | International Space Station |
| Launch date | 4 May 2019, 06:48 UTC |
| Rocket | Falcon 9 |
| Launch site | Cape Canaveral, SLC-40 |
OCO-3 was assembled using spare materials from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 satellite. Because the OCO-3 instrument is similar to the OCO-2 instrument, it is expected to have similar performance with its measurements used to quantify CO2 to 1 ppm precision or better at 3 Hz.