Cali Dem leaders: Satellite deorbiting proposal - URGENT

[SpankMe]

DU thread: https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143513382

Article: https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/13/climate/nasa-satellites-trump-budget-cuts-weather

I just sent a letter to California governor Newsom with a suggestion. California has always been at the forefront of environmental protection. Trump's politburo has decided to de-orbit - and allow to burn up - the NASA climate study satellites that are still actively in-mission. Their stated reason is "budget cuts". The real reason is to obstruct climate science by eliminating data collection.

In reference to one satellite - OCO-2, Orbiting Carbon Observatory - the satellite is bought and paid for and costs only $15M/year to maintain and collect data from. It's good through 2040. It collects valuable data about carbon in Earth's atmosphere. It is operated from a small control room at JPL.

I propose that the state of California - the University of California system, to be exact - take over the satellite's mission. UC's budget is $10B/yr. Certainly they can find a paltry $15M/yr to operate OCO-2 and keep that sweet data coming it. It's operated out of JPL in Pasadena.

They could even partner with other universities with climate programs in other states and split the costs. The cost per stakeholder would be trivial. The satellite's already paid for. Only mission ops would be required.

For a very small amount - probably less than $1M up front - they could move the control room outside of JPL an into a UC facility. For a few dollars more, they could even move the uplink from NASA equipment to a UC-owned antenna somewhere.

If any highly placed California Democrats monitor DU, please read this and take it under advisement. Thanks.

[eppur_se_muova]

1. JPL is managed by Caltech, a private university.

I doubt they would object if the UC system wanted to share some of the costs, or share the already installed facility; no need to relocate it. Cooperation in academia should be much easier than with a pathologically partisan maladministration.

Thanks for posting this info; I had heard about the story but not the details.

[WarGamer]

2. good proposal, I like it... 100%