Fossil fuel use and animal farming is driving global emissions of methane to its highest levels on record, putting humanity at risk as the world dangerously heats up. Cutting methane emissions is the single fastest and most impactful thing we can do to slow global warming – and it’s hoped MethaneSAT, an international climate change mission part-funded by the New Zealand Government, will help us to do that.

MethaneSAT is a satellite developed by the non-profit Environmental Defense Fund that will locate and measure methane emissions across Earth, producing quantitative data that will enable both companies and countries to identify, manage, and reduce their methane emissions, slowing the rate at which our planet is warming.

In 2019 the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (MBIE) agreed to contribute $26 million to managing the mission from Aotearoa, including a new Mission Operations and Control Centre built and run by space company Rocket Lab before the University of Auckland takes over, and funding for a New Zealand-based research project that uses the satellite to detect agricultural methane.

This Techweek event brings together those key partners in New Zealand’s first government-funded space mission to discuss the science and technology behind MethaneSAT, how the partnership will accelerate our local space industry, and provide vital data to inform New Zealand’s own climate change policy.