Although NASA is famous for exploring outer space, the agency is also using a spacecraft to investigate mysteries in Earth’s oceans and atmosphere. The PACE spacecraft is scheduled to launch with a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Thursday at 1:33 a.m., after being delayed from a Wednesday launch, according to the agency. The delay was due to ground winds preventing prelaunch checkouts, as announced by NASA and SpaceX. PACE stands for Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem and will be used to collect data on clouds, aerosols, and phytoplankton growth that can determine ocean color, as per NASA’s Feb. 1 press release.
NASA and SpaceX technicians safely encapsulate NASA’s PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) spacecraft in Space’s Falcon 9 payload fairings on Jan. 30, 2024, at the Astrotech Space Operations Facility near the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Fla.Katie Mellos/NASA Goddard”Measuring the color and amount of light will help scientists better understand the types and locations of microscopic algae, which are vital to the health of Earth’s oceans and its marine life,” the agency said. “PACE will contribute to NASA’s more than 20 years of global satellite observations of ocean biology and key measurements related to air quality and climate.” NASA says the data from PACE will help to better understand the exchange of carbon dioxide between the ocean and the atmosphere as well as how aerosols could possibly fuel phytoplankton growth on the ocean’s surface. Once launched, the 10.5-foot-long spacecraft is designed to reach a 676.5 km (420 mi) orbital altitude with a 98-degree inclination, according to NASA. The agency’s goal is for PACE to orbit and collect data for three years. NASA reports that PACE will use three instruments: The Ocean Color Instrument (OCI) will measure properties of light over portions of the electromagnetic spectrum to analyze ocean color data records for climate studies. The Spectro-polarimeter for Planetary Exploration (SPEXone) will facilitate accurate characterization of aerosols in the atmosphere by measuring sunlight reflected back from Earth’s atmosphere, land surface, and ocean. The Hyper-Angular Rainbow Polarimeter (HARP2) will measure aerosol particles and clouds, as well as properties of land and water surfaces.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with NASA’s PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) spacecraft encapsulated atop is rolled to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Feb. 5, 2024.Spacex/SpaceX via NASA”This is a wonderful mission that is going to tell us about the health of our oceans and the quality of the air that we breathe,” said Nicky Fox, head of science at NASA, in an interview with ABC Chicago station WLS. “I’m just excited about the new way we’re going to be looking at our planet,” Fox continued.”We’re going to be looking at the ocean with unprecedented detail — if you think about looking at a prism, it looks like a piece of glass. But if you shine a light through it, you spread that out into all the colors of the rainbow and that is essentially what we are doing with PACE,” Fox said. “We are sort of shining a light on the Earth’s water system and allowing us to look at them in unprecedented detail all the way from ultraviolet up to near infrared so not just looking at the fact that we have phytoplankton in the ocean, but actually to be able to look at the different species, some of which actually can be harmful for us.”
