ITT Corporation (NYSE:ITT) has been selected by NASA to help design, develop, and test a set of instruments to measure carbon dioxide (CO2) from air and space in support of NASA’s Active Sensing of CO2 Emissions over Nights, Days and Season (ASCENDS) mission, which is expected to launch in 2015.
In a 2007 survey by the National Academy of Sciences, ASCENDS was identified as being crucial to quantifying global distributions of land and ocean sources and sinks of CO2, which provides the scientific basis for future projections of carbon dioxide in climate models. ITT was awarded an initial Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract for ASCENDS Mission Support for a period of five years with a total value of $7 million. According to NASA, the sole source award went to ITT due as the Company’s multifunctional fiber laser light detection and ranging (LIDAR) technology was the only instrument that has demonstrated the capability of meeting the key science measurement requirement for ASCENDS.
While there are other technologies capable of measuring CO2 from space, namely NASA‘s Orbiting Carbon Observatory mission, which did not reach orbit earlier this year, and the Japanese Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite mission, currently in space, ASCENDS will be the only one capable of measuring CO2 day or night, through clouds, and at all latitudes. The breadth of the ASCENDS measurements will be key to any CO2 regulations, cap and trade system, and international treaty verification. This summer, a team of ITT scientists and engineers will be deployed to Virginia, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin, along with a team of NASA scientists and aircraft operations personnel. Collectively, these teams will conduct a series of flights to demonstrate the ability to identify sources and sinks of CO2.
Additionally, ITT has also won two study contracts to address detailed costing of commercial options for operational weather systems. ITT is the premier supplier for operational weather sensors flown on U.S. and international spacecraft with continuous operations during the past 35 years in low-Earth orbit (LEO) and geostationary orbit (GEO). ITT’s Space Systems business proposed multiple options to provide geosynchronous sounding and imaging via alternative procurement methods including firm-fixed price and fee-for-service. The specific purpose of the solicited options was to provide vertical atmospheric profiles to aid in improved weather forecasts. Both of these systems were originally planned for the next-generation GOES-R mission, as part of the Hyperspectral Environmental Suite (HES). HES was canceled in 2006 due to cost and risk concerns. ITT proposes options to restore these capabilities at significantly lower cost. By deploying these sensors at lower cost, the full benefit of these much-needed observations can be restored. These options may also be deployed internationally in the same way to meet global weather, fishery and climate needs.
