Thales Alenia Space has reached a significant milestone with the successful completion of the MicroCarb satellite Assembly, Integration and Test (AIT), indicating its readiness for launch. The final phases of MicroCarb’s development were successfully completed at RAL Space in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. The satellite has been shipped initially to Thales Alenia Space’s Toulouse facility in France ahead of storage at CNES premises until its shipment for launch.

© Thales Alenia Space

The MicroCarb mission, funded by France’s PIA investment program and managed by Space French Agency CNES acting as prime contractor is also part of a bilateral agreement signed in 2014 between France and the United Kingdom, outlining joint collaboration on space programs. In 2017, CNES and the UK Space Agency (UKSA) entrusted Thales Alenia Space in the UK to perform the crucial Assembly, Integration and Tests (AIT) in 2022.

After the integration phase, MicroCarb, based on CNES’s Myriade bus, completed by onboard measurement instrument, a dispersive spectrometer provided by Airbus Defence & Space, underwent rigorous environmental tests, thermal vacuum tests and checks of its propulsion system before earning qualification for space.

As the pioneering European project dedicated to monitor carbon flux, MicroCarb addresses the challenge of limited ground-based measurements of CO2 quantities released and absorbed on Earth. The satellite is equipped to map carbon sources and sinks — in cities, forests and oceans — from space and detect changes in carbon flux at the planet’s surface. These measurements are expected to enhance our understanding of CO2 presence on Earth and contribute to informed climate policy decisions.

One of the satellite’s distinguishing features is its scanning observation mode, allowing for precise measurements of CO2 levels in Earth’s atmosphere. Its dispersive spectrometer instrument is designed to measure atmospheric CO2 concentrations globally with an accuracy in the order of 1 molecule per million molecules of dry air (1 ppm) and a rectangular pixel size of 4.5 km x 9 km.

Monitoring CO2 levels is crucial in the fight against climate change, and Earth observation space missions such as MicroCarb or CO2M play a vital role in this regard. Equipped with payloads provided by Thales Alenia Space, the upcoming CO2M satellites within Europe’s Copernicus program will contribute to the ambitious goal of measuring atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by human activity. These missions are in perfect alignment with the Thales Alenia Space's "Space for Life" aspiration, for a more sustainable life on Earth.