Space
Methane Problem Found On India's Mars Orbiter
Ruhn Sebial
First Posted: Dec 20, 2016 03:10 AM EST
It has been more than two years when its pioneering Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) reached the Red Planet, the Indian Space Research Organization has to nevertheless apply the extremely anticipated measurements of atmospheric methane, a gas that is powerfully tied to life on Earth. Seeker has learned that the info can never come, it is because of a flaw within the design sensor.
Michael Mumma, the senior scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, released a statement to Seeker that it failed to design this properly for the detection of methane on Mars. In 2003, Michael Mumma led a team that created the very first definitive measurements of methane on Mars with the use of an infrared telescope in Hawaii, according to Space.com.
The methane that appeared in plumes over specific regions of Mars reached the maximum density of an estimate of 60 parts per billion. Michael Mumma also added that the (MOM) instrument is fantastically built; however, it is not for the methane task. It also has other value. Unfortunately, it is going to not be able to give measurements of methane at the levels required to sample even the plumes that the scientists have seen, Portal to the Universe revealed.
The said problem has got to do with the way the instrument collects and processes detections of methane within the atmosphere, a way referred to as spectroscopy. Michael Mumma also added to imagine an individual holding in his hand that is in front and extend his four fingers and suppose that every finger represents a methane line. What they need may be a spectrometer that could be shifted to sample each of the four fingers and can then have a second on that sample the region between the fingers.
Michael Mumma also thinks that the problem is that they do not really send the spectra back, what they should send back is those two numbers, which are the sum of the fingers measured by the primary channel, and therefore, the sum of gaps measured by the second channel, then they take a distinction of these two numbers and that they suppose that it will be the methane signal.
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First Posted: Dec 20, 2016 03:10 AM EST
It has been more than two years when its pioneering Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) reached the Red Planet, the Indian Space Research Organization has to nevertheless apply the extremely anticipated measurements of atmospheric methane, a gas that is powerfully tied to life on Earth. Seeker has learned that the info can never come, it is because of a flaw within the design sensor.
Michael Mumma, the senior scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, released a statement to Seeker that it failed to design this properly for the detection of methane on Mars. In 2003, Michael Mumma led a team that created the very first definitive measurements of methane on Mars with the use of an infrared telescope in Hawaii, according to Space.com.
The methane that appeared in plumes over specific regions of Mars reached the maximum density of an estimate of 60 parts per billion. Michael Mumma also added that the (MOM) instrument is fantastically built; however, it is not for the methane task. It also has other value. Unfortunately, it is going to not be able to give measurements of methane at the levels required to sample even the plumes that the scientists have seen, Portal to the Universe revealed.
The said problem has got to do with the way the instrument collects and processes detections of methane within the atmosphere, a way referred to as spectroscopy. Michael Mumma also added to imagine an individual holding in his hand that is in front and extend his four fingers and suppose that every finger represents a methane line. What they need may be a spectrometer that could be shifted to sample each of the four fingers and can then have a second on that sample the region between the fingers.
Michael Mumma also thinks that the problem is that they do not really send the spectra back, what they should send back is those two numbers, which are the sum of the fingers measured by the primary channel, and therefore, the sum of gaps measured by the second channel, then they take a distinction of these two numbers and that they suppose that it will be the methane signal.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone