OCO-2 in orbit
Second time’s the charm: A Delta 2 rocket successfully launched the Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO-2) into orbit on Wednesday, five years after the first OCO was lost at launch when its Taurus XL rocket fell into the ocean.
The Earth-observing satellite is designed to globally track the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
I have to note that if the science of climate change was so “settled,” as President Barack Obama keeps insisting, why did we then spend half a billion dollars on this satellite? Wouldn’t it make more sense to drop the research and focus entirely on saving the planet?
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Second time’s the charm: A Delta 2 rocket successfully launched the Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO-2) into orbit on Wednesday, five years after the first OCO was lost at launch when its Taurus XL rocket fell into the ocean.
The Earth-observing satellite is designed to globally track the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
I have to note that if the science of climate change was so “settled,” as President Barack Obama keeps insisting, why did we then spend half a billion dollars on this satellite? Wouldn’t it make more sense to drop the research and focus entirely on saving the planet?
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Are new Delta 2 rockets still being manufactured, or is this launch using a leftover from a final production run?
I thought that atmospheric CO2 was a known quantity. Does it require verification?
Matt,
A little of both. Major components for 5 more existed, and this used one of them up. They had to reopen some facilities for things. But mostly it was older pre-existing hardware.
“I have to note that if the science of climate change was so “settled,” as President Barack Obama keeps insisting, why did we then spend half a billion dollars on this satellite?”
It’s a way to say your doing something without accountability.
In my mind, any data that come from this satellite is suspect, the motives are suspect and the agency that launched this bird is suspect, I do not trust the scientists or the government to produce true numbers, only an agenda that I do not agree with. The federal government is so broke and has unfunded obligations that would bankrupt the world, that they will do anything to get their carbon tax imposed and at the same time hurt lower income people with bills that are not payable, I think the end result will be something like Mao’s revolution, no one wins except party members.
As long as the raw data is available to the public the ways it can be manipulated are limited.
Think of it like a picture. Some people might see a ghost is the background and everyone else sees smoke from a fire.
Nether is provable until the next set of data comes in. IE the next picture, one that either shows the ghost clearly or now shows the fire making the smoke.
Data is just data and its manipulation is wholly based on the the guy doing the initial interpretation and the gullibility of the audience.
In the case of global climate change/ global man made warming or what ever you want to call it now, the public is getting more and more skeptical of those crying that the sky is falling. the problem is that many politicians see this as a way to gain more power for themselves and government so they promote it even if they don’t really believe in it.
There will always be those who believe in GW just like there are those who believe in communism. Even though it has been proven over and over again to never work in the long term.