A Montreal company announced its nanosatellite called, CLAIRE, surpassed its final test and is scheduled to launch in April 2016. This tiny satellite is designed to monitor greenhouse gas emissions in several sites around the world.
This innovative satellite aims to battle climate change. It will soon provide a way to gauge gas emissions from industrial facilities from all over the world. GHGSat will monitor carbon emissions from facilities like companies involving mining, oil, gas, and power generation.
"All systems go! This milestone is the culmination of two years of intense effort by a team of Canadian engineers and scientists. GHGSat is bringing technological innovation in the aerospace industry to the fight against climate change," Stéphane Germain, President of GHGSat, said.
Developed for two years, the satellite has been dubbed as an affordable way for companies to measure how much gas emissions specifically carbon dioxide and methane industrial facilities produce each year. This will help companies to implement policies in the reduction of gas emissions that contribute to global warming and harm the environment.
"Given the way the orbital dynamics work, it will take about two weeks for CLAIRE to see any point on the Earth, and then return to see that same point on the Earth. What that means is, we can measure any point on the surface of the Earth, every two weeks, with a single satellite," Germain explained.
Several companies joined the effort in developing the satellite including Xiphos Technologies, Space Flight Laboratory at the University of Toronto's Institute for Aerospace Studies, and MPB Communications. Also, Boeing Company helped with GHGSat's development with its expertise in engineering and spacecraft design.
To maximize the utilization of the satellite, the company created a crowdfunding campaign in Kickstarter. This will pave way for the satellite to be used in its full potential and it will fund demonstrations globally. This will help companies in many parts of the world to be 'convinced of out technology's benefits'.
"We founded our whole business on the concept that if there is value in a tonne of carbon, then the producers are going to be motivated to reduce their emissions," Germain added.
