Rnz: Our Changing World

In March 2024, a satellite built to detect the potent greenhouse gas methane launched into orbit – backed by New Zealand to a final total of $32 million. MethaneSAT aimed to pinpoint large leaks from oil and gas fields, since plugging these is considered an easy climate win. But an add-on mission was investigating whether the satellite could pick up the smaller, more diffuse methane emissions from agriculture. Our Changing World joined the New Zealand-based team testing this capability – before disaster struck. With MethaneSAT uncontactable and lost in space, what did the mission deliver? Sign up to the Our Changing World monthly newsletter for episode backstories, science analysis and more.In this episode:00:00 – 03:08: Introduction03:08 – 05:38: A methane-measuring device takes off from the airfield05:38 – 16:32: Ground-based methane measurements with the EM-2716:32 – 25:29: What went wrong, and what data MethaneSAT did collect…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details