California Governor to Launch his “Own D*mn Satellite” to Monitor Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Artists impression of Jerry Brown’s new monitoring satellite. Earth image credit NASA.

Guest essay by Eric Worrall

Providing climate data to the world is apparently a top Californian government spending priority.

‘We’re launching our own damn satellite’ — Gov. Jerry Brown says California will go to space to fight climate change

By EVAN HALPER

Gov. Moonbeam is finally sending California into space.

Jerry Brown closed his climate summit in San Francisco on Friday with a dramatic announcement: California will launch its own satellite into orbit to track and monitor the formation of pollutants that cause climate change.

“With science still under attack and the climate threat growing, we’re launching our own damn satellite,” Brown said in prepared remarks. “This groundbreaking initiative will help governments, businesses and landowners pinpoint — and stop — destructive emissions with unprecedented precision, on a scale that’s never been done before.”

The state will develop the satellite with the San Francisco-based Earth-imaging firm Planet Labs, a company founded by former NASA scientists in 2010. The state may ultimately launch multiple satellites into space, according to the governor’s office. The California Air Resources Board is in the process of developing the monitoring technology used by the satellite. No date has been set for the launch; the process is expected to take several years.

Brown’s announcement came in quickly delivered remarks at the close of the three-day gathering and received a standing ovation from many in the audience. Two activists who stood up on their seats saying Brown is “not a climate leader” were carried out of the auditorium by security.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-global-climate-summit-live-updates-we-re-launching-our-own-damn-satellite-1536957076-htmlstory.html#

The suggestion that the satellite will “pinpoint and stop destructive emissions” seems a bit ominous, given that the satellite’s capabilities have not yet been finalised. But I guess on the positive side we should all be happy California has so much spare cash they can spend millions of dollars on global projects which provide minimal return to Californian taxpayers.

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John Garrett
September 15, 2018 2:11 pm

Every time I start to think Governor Moonbeam can’t possibly do anything loonier, the crackpot goes and proves me wrong.

philincalifornia
Reply to  John Garrett
September 15, 2018 2:36 pm

Perhaps someone will break the news to him that there’s already one up there?

https://oco.jpl.nasa.gov

nw sage
Reply to  philincalifornia
September 15, 2018 3:02 pm

Don’t confuse him with facts – his mind (whats left of it) is already made up.

Yirgach
Reply to  nw sage
September 15, 2018 5:05 pm

You mean his mind is settled?

Reply to  Yirgach
September 15, 2018 5:12 pm

quick, give it another shake to stir it back up

pochas94
Reply to  philincalifornia
September 15, 2018 4:02 pm

Yeahbut, he can’t hype the data on a NASA satellite. This one he owns.

Allencic
Reply to  John Garrett
September 15, 2018 6:05 pm

Why bother? No matter what the satellite actually finds, it will prove global warming and it will hurt, women, children, minorities and illegal aliens most.

R Shearer
Reply to  John Garrett
September 15, 2018 6:21 pm

High speed train to space (SHTTS).

Rich Davis
Reply to  R Shearer
September 16, 2018 5:15 am

We need to figure out a name where the acronym can be SHTSTRM because that’s all that can be expected from this propaganda stunt.

I, O left out of the acronym because that part goes to the California taxpayers who foot the bill.

Chuck
Reply to  John Garrett
September 15, 2018 8:25 pm

When politicians near the end of their political careers they start telling you what they’ve really thought and believed all along. There’s no political penalty. It’s not senility. This is what Jerry Brown has always been.

CKMoore
Reply to  Chuck
September 16, 2018 1:29 pm

“This is what Jerry Brown has always been.?

Senile?

Reply to  John Garrett
September 16, 2018 7:24 am

This morning, I really miss the vote-up/vote-down module that Anthony had working!!

Plus 100 John!

One of those curious thoughts flitted near.
The other day, someone complained about the inability to see “whom” voted comments up or down.

Then WUWT gets takes a hit, and Anthony loses his novel wonderful comment vote-up/vote-down.
Did one event trigger the other?

A few months back, I watched a Johnny Carson rerun.
Where a young guv moonbeam made noises that sounded remarkably like conservative government.

Guv moonbeam’s public funds parasitism was strong that day, as moonbeamy announced running for public office, again.

Millions to billions of California dollars spent on duplicative technology.
God help impoverished Californians, as moonbeamy wastes their excessively high tax dollars.

A rocket program will need:
A) Ever increasing Government or contractual oversight
B) Technology research, development and construction… Anyone else suspect musky whispers here?
C) Launch and recovery facilities
D) Monitoring teams to forever track their satellites and capture data for analysis and presentation.
E) A larger government public communication department that will endlessly release “make work” press releases.

California is rapidly becoming a “Princess Bride” “Pit of Despair”; sucking the life out of inhabitants.

kent beuchert
September 15, 2018 2:15 pm

PAt Brown conyinually surprises us all with the boneheaded ideas that flow from his thick skull.
For taxing e cigarettes (an impossibility – very few vapists use e gigarettes) and encouraging smokers to keep smoking tobacco, I deem his to be an accessory to deaths caused by tobacco. He is worse than any tobacco company. He also has lied about e -cigareetes, claming they pose a substantial health risk.
There is no logical reason to think that and certainly not a shred of evidence to support that argument. Pat Brown may have claimed nicotene is deadly. In the first place, many vapists, like myself, do not use nocotene, not because it is harmful, but because the nicotene in the e -liquid of an e cigarette cannot be transported into the vapist’s lungs. That was proven years ago in a controlled experiment at the University of Maryland, andd I myself can testify that you can’t get a nicotene high from an e-cigarette. Want nicotene? – buy some nicotene gum and chew it while you vape. Nicotene is NOT a carcinagen, now or ever.

Sheri
Reply to  kent beuchert
September 15, 2018 2:25 pm

Again, someone has to throw in extraneous comments that have zero to do with the article above.

Michael Jankowski
Reply to  Sheri
September 15, 2018 2:44 pm

Maybe such satellites would exist if not for the fact that NASA’s priorities shifted to things like “Muslim outreach.”

Maybe he’s unaware of this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geostationary_Carbon_Cycle_Observatory

The project will ultimately likely be scratched, but not before his CA cronies make lots of taxpayer-funded $$$.

shrnfr
Reply to  Michael Jankowski
September 15, 2018 4:55 pm

At this point, he has suckered Jeremy Grantham out of some of the money for seed money.

john
Reply to  Sheri
September 15, 2018 4:51 pm

Well, speaking of non scientists…and space cadets…

https://mobile.twitter.com/johnpodesta/status/1040678260101636096

Read the repies…

Reply to  kent beuchert
September 15, 2018 4:42 pm

Pat Brown was Moonbeam’s baby-daddy

Bruce Cobb
September 15, 2018 2:15 pm

Wow, Brown is angry now. The TDS and CCDS are causing him to swear. He has gone way past “moonbeam” status now, to full on, stark raving lunatic. Where’s a strait jacket when you need one?

markl
September 15, 2018 2:23 pm

Moonbeam is becoming more unhinged over Climate Change as time moves on. It’s clearly developed from a concern to an unhealthy, for all, obsession. The amount of money he’s spent and has earmarked to support this demon could have housed all California’s homeless people and put a dent in its’ water shortage problem.

Alan Tomalty
Reply to  markl
September 15, 2018 6:56 pm

To give you an idea of how radical the loony bin left alarmists are; They think Governor Brown has sold out and protest him at every opportunity.

Moderately Cross of East Anglia
September 15, 2018 2:24 pm

Is it just a coincidence that the illustration makes the satellite look like the Star Wars Death Star or do you know something we don’t? Moonbeam as Darth? Now who could possibly be Jaba the Hut?

Life following fiction yet again

Sheri
Reply to  Moderately Cross of East Anglia
September 15, 2018 2:27 pm

I have a muscovy duck male named Darth Vader. You’re insulting my duck. My duck is smarter than Moonbeam.

TonyL
Reply to  Sheri
September 15, 2018 4:02 pm

OK,
Do you have a second one named Princess Leia????

shrnfr
Reply to  Sheri
September 15, 2018 4:58 pm

How did you come up with that deducktion?

Moderately Cross of East Anglia
Reply to  Sheri
September 16, 2018 1:08 am

I apologise to your duck 🦆

WXcycles
Reply to  Moderately Cross of East Anglia
September 15, 2018 6:07 pm

It’s using a black hole as a tractor beam … that, or it’s got a very prominent refuse compactor.

Phantor48
September 15, 2018 2:25 pm

I’ve always suspected Jerry Brown was a space cadet. Now there is no doubt.

ozspeaksup
Reply to  Phantor48
September 16, 2018 3:15 am

if only you could make him one in reality
send him up with the sat!

kenji
September 15, 2018 2:26 pm

Crackpot senile Totalitarian Governor(s) launching SPY satellites … what could possibly go wrong?

I guess the Fireplace Polizia, enforcing “no-burn days” wasn’t quite Draconian-enough.

Jeff Alberts
September 15, 2018 2:26 pm

And how much emissions will the rockets spew that will carry his satellites?

Dave Burton
Reply to  Jeff Alberts
September 15, 2018 2:51 pm

None if the rocket uses liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen as propellants.

Reply to  Dave Burton
September 15, 2018 3:13 pm

Water vapor.
Dave, is that a greenhouse gas?

Peter
Reply to  Dave Burton
September 15, 2018 3:18 pm

You realise the dihydrogen monoxide exhaust is a much more potent green house gas than carbon dioxide?

MarkW
Reply to  Dave Burton
September 16, 2018 10:22 am

How was the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen made?

hanelyp
Reply to  MarkW
September 16, 2018 6:44 pm

Liquid hydrogen is usually made by cracking light hydrocarbons, emitting CO2 in the process. Electrolysis of water is more expensive, especially with the direction electric rates are going in deep blue democrat toilets. LOX is made by fractional liquefaction of air.

Greg Woods
Reply to  Jeff Alberts
September 15, 2018 3:12 pm

Maybe his choo choo to nowhere can deliver the satellite(s)…

Greg Woods
Reply to  Jeff Alberts
September 15, 2018 3:13 pm

Maybe his choo choo to nowhere can be put to good use…

Latitude
September 15, 2018 2:28 pm

good grief…when you have NASA, NOAA, 97% of climate scientists, and every other money sucker..
…pimping for you
Why in this world would you want to rock the boat…

Maybe it can find their missing water……….

Rick K
September 15, 2018 2:35 pm

So… will Moonbeam’s satellite “pinpoint — and stop — destructive emissions” from every breathing human in the state?

David Wendt
September 15, 2018 2:43 pm

Did I miss something? Don’t we already have a satellite monitoring atmospheric GHGs? Although I suppose a Mexafornia satellite will likely be much more capable.

Reply to  David Wendt
September 15, 2018 4:06 pm

Yes, it will get the “right” results.

Alan Tomalty
Reply to  David Wendt
September 15, 2018 6:59 pm

Now we need one to monitor aerosols. They are the climate driver.

September 15, 2018 2:43 pm

And I thought our UK politicians were loonies.

London247
Reply to  HotScot
September 15, 2018 4:19 pm

Like the old joke. A naked man was arrested outside Downing Street shouting “the Government are a bunch of lunatics”. He got £ 50 fine for public indencey and 30 years for revealing a state secret.

peterh
Reply to  London247
September 16, 2018 6:46 pm

Wish I could be sure that was a joke.

Marty
September 15, 2018 2:46 pm

It will never be built or launched. He will be out of office in the near future and it will quietly be forgotten.

It’s like Elon Musk and Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago announcing grandiose plans to bore a hyper-loop type tunnel between block 37 in downtown Chicago and O’Hare International Airport. All to be completed in two years. For one billion dollars and it won’t cost the tax payers a dime. To date, six months later there is still no signed contract, no agreed right of way, no geological studies and no business plan. In Spring Mayor Emanuel will be out of office and Elon Musk may be bankrupt. In all likelihood the tunnel project will quietly be forgotten. But it made for wonderful television.

If you will indulge me a moment, I’m going to recklessly over-generalize here. This non-sense about launching a satellite is symptomatic of Liberalism’s greatest weakness. Most liberals are just plain gullible. A lot of them are children or naive adult-children who never grew up. They have a tendency to be taken in by fancy words and a fine speech . They listen to what their leaders say – not to what their leaders actually do. President Obama talked a good game but he did very little. It didn’t matter. He is a candidate for sainthood. Donald Trump communicates poorly but he has done more to create actual jobs for poor people than Obama ever did. Doesn’t matter – he doesn’t talk like their sociology professor so they think he is a fool. The satellite of course is ridiculous and will never be built or launched. But it sounds nice. It doesn’t matter to liberals that it will never actually be built and that their leaders are playing them for fools.

philincalifornia
Reply to  Marty
September 15, 2018 2:52 pm

Although there were two activists thrown out of the room by security. Presumably activists against Brown’s purported) cosy relationships with oil companies.

… and yeah, he’s out soon. Will be replaced by Gavin Newsom, so expect more of the same.

eck
Reply to  philincalifornia
September 15, 2018 8:09 pm

Newsome’s likely a complete zero. Never done ANYTHING beneficial or important. Jerry. at least, has had experience running the “machine” if ineptly. And has evidence of, at least, a partial brain, as evidenced by some of his vetoes. So, watch out. It’s gonna get much, much worse under “pretty boy” “zero” Newsom.

Tweak
Reply to  Marty
September 15, 2018 4:42 pm

“He is a candidate for ainthood”

Fixed it for ya!

Yirgach
Reply to  Marty
September 15, 2018 5:39 pm

Wow, you got that right.
Here in Southern Vermont, on Sept 8 they had a”Windham County Rise for Climate Rally”, where at least 100 bike riders were joined by as many walkers to protest the blasphemous use of fossil fuels, which of course cause climate change.
Here’s a quote from the rally, sponsored by our friends at Brattleboro350:
“A single cyclist feels alone on Brattleboro’s busy roads,” said Abby Mnookin.
“Add 100 riders to the lane and it feels so different and really empowering,” she said.
There was a “bike petting zoo” as well as the obligatory face painting
“Climate change is a justice issue,” said Mnookin, pointing out that while it impacts everyone, it does not impact everyone equally and most hurts people living on the margins of our society.

All this means is that the local bicycle riders will become more aggressive in challenging the multi-ton vehicles threatening their lifestyle.

They just don’t understand that after all the rallys and speeches, nothing about the climate is doing will have changed, no matter what what they do.

God help them all, they mean well, but are totally deluded.

Full mind blowing article here: http://www.commonsnews.org/site/sitenext/story.php?articleno=28986

Don K
Reply to  Yirgach
September 16, 2018 5:17 am

One wonders how these folks got their bikes to Brattleboro. It’s not exactly the center of the universe. In fact, it’s along way from anything except Dummerston. My guess is that somewhere between 95% and 98% of them drove fossil fuel powered vehicles with bicycles hanging on the back or tied to the roof.

Chip
Reply to  Marty
September 15, 2018 10:43 pm

“The strongest argument for socialism is that it sounds good. The strongest argument against socialism is that it doesn’t work. But those who live by words will always have a soft spot in their hearts for socialism because it sounds so good.” – Thomas Sowell

Reply to  Chip
September 15, 2018 10:56 pm

>>
Thomas Sowell
<<

One of the smarter men on the planet. His “Basic Economics” is an excellent read.

Jim

Reply to  Marty
September 16, 2018 7:23 am

Today’s liberals are programmed to believe that anything authoritarian in good and must be imposed.
True liberalism which seemed to have reached its best in the late 1900s understood “The unexamined life is not worth living”.
Now it is “The coerced life is not worth living.”
Bob Hoye

MarkW
Reply to  Marty
September 16, 2018 10:25 am

To a liberal, intentions are what matter. Results are just a distraction.

Mike the Morlock
September 15, 2018 2:50 pm

I really hope Governor Brown gets permission for the his launch and notifies all concerned parties. It would probably be for the best to simply engage governor Brown’s space launch from the ABM site in Alaska, it is important to prevent the Russians and Chinese form seeing something on their radar screens and over reacting. Or, lord forgive the Indians and Pakistanis for that matter.

michael

JimG1
September 15, 2018 3:00 pm

The illustration looks a lot like the star wars death star the emperor was building before his untimely demise. With California’s debt load and ridiculous anti business economic/free sh*t/ socialist policies under gov moon beam the cost of launcing this satellite might be the death star for California. But then I’m sure he will expect a bailout from the rest of the country once he and his policies are flushed down the drain.

commieBob
September 15, 2018 3:06 pm

Hey, this is great news! It represents jobs for many of my former students who now work in the aerospace industry. Three cheers for Governor Moonbeam!!!

Wallaby Geoff
September 15, 2018 3:09 pm

USA’s governor Brown makes Australian politicians look like they have some degree of intelligence.

Quilter52
Reply to  Wallaby Geoff
September 15, 2018 7:46 pm

Such a relief to see your comment Geoff. I was beginning to feel very lonely whenever Oz was mentioned anywhere because our whole group of pollies are so unhinged. Mind you South Australia is taking about a space port or was that before the last state election.

RACookPE1978
Editor
Reply to  Quilter52
September 15, 2018 7:59 pm

South (East) Australia would be an interesting launch point point. Due south (for polar orbits) is possible – without the limits and expenses of Vandenburg!) and a due east flight path could be flown from the east coast over open water.

Closer to the equator would favor east-shooting launches => Northeast coast site.
Due north is then possible from a north-east coast launch site, since the Ozzies have no nuke ICBM’s a north-facing launch doesn’t trigger the automatic “OH SHIT WE’RE GETTING ATTACKED!” warnings of a US-UK-French missile launch over the pole.)

Steve Reddish
Reply to  RACookPE1978
September 15, 2018 10:55 pm

What does it matter if a polar orbit is started by launching north or south from Australia? Nothing gained by having a south-east launch site.

SR

MarkW
Reply to  Steve Reddish
September 16, 2018 10:29 am

The point was that they could launch due south over water. Launching over water is a good idea in case the booster goes boom. The pieces only bother the fish when they hit.

RACookPE1978
Editor
Reply to  Steve Reddish
September 16, 2018 11:08 am

A south east coastal launch site has no land (other countries) north or east of it. Makes aborted missiles, missile debris, falling stages and air clearance zones much, much easier. Easier scheduling (because you don’t need such permissions from other countries and have no liabilities to those other countries) means much less trouble with schedules – more important unexpected delays.
A north-to-south polar orbit is not sensitive to east-west speed advantage of being closer to the equator.

A southeast coast launch site is, most important, closer to the people and ports and cities where the “launch site stuff” (and the stuff to build and support the launch site itself) have to be purchased. Hervey, for example, is over three hours drive from Brisbane, itself not very large.

A launch north (from the SE coast) would go over the middle desert – which makes tracking radars and sites easier to support.

Now, launch eastwards are far better coming from the NE coast line. Such as Brisbane.

Don K
Reply to  RACookPE1978
September 16, 2018 5:08 am

If California actually builds a satellite, they’ll surely pay someone else — NASA, SpaceX, Russia, China, etc,etc,etc to launch it and also to provide ground station services. Since it’s not clear WHY they want the thing, it’s hard to guess what sort of orbit they’ll want.

My guess is that they’ve heard a really spiffy presentation from some set of high-tech bandits or other and don’t yet understand the real world problems they will face. e.g. Unless they want to look at California from geosynchronous orbit 24000 miles out, they’ll likely only get only two short passes over the state each day, lots of nifty sensors can’t see through clouds, etc, etc, etc.

Most likely thing is that as the problems become clearer, the notion that a satellite is an answer to their problems (if any) will fade. If they actually need to sense stuff that existing services and satellites don’t handle, they may end up paying an airline a few 100K per year to bolt a sensor package onto scheduled airliners flying over the state. Or maybe they’ll put a sensor package into state vehicles that are on the road anyway — CHP patrol vehicles for example.

OTOH, assuming rational decision making in California may be a bit of a stretch.

amber
September 15, 2018 3:11 pm

Yeah and launch it with Moonbeam on it .
Really is the guy that mental ?
What has happened is the train to no where and the imminent California melt down have pushed the earth has a fever priest over the top .

Schitzree
September 15, 2018 3:13 pm

Ready for Launch, Captain Moonbeam!

https://youtu.be/-pGOIIwY12I

nw sage
September 15, 2018 3:20 pm

There is ZERO chance this isn’t political BS. Moonbeam is on his way out – term limited – and the timing of these phantom satellite launches won’t possibly be until 2021. Once the costs are made clear to the legislature they will NEVER fund the work – even under Gavin Newsome. And Gov Brown knows all this.

Editor
September 15, 2018 3:33 pm

Dear God, will we NEVER be rid of this POS? He has driven the state into the poorhouse and yet he still believes California is rich enough to have both a $100 billion dollar slow bullet train to nowhere, PLUS a useless satellite.

I’ve never wished someone dead … but with this congenital idiot, I’m working my way up to wishing him GBH …

w.

Alan Tomalty
Reply to  Willis Eschenbach
September 15, 2018 7:22 pm

Now now Willis , no violence in WUWT. On a happier note the Chinese are still the leading country that is forcing the Guardian climate carbon dioxide emission clock to run at 1000 tons of CO2 per second . Go China Go . In 43 days it will hit 75%% of the POINT OF NO RETURN of 2.9 trillion tons of CO2 emitted since the caveman days. Sadly we will have to wait another 18 years for the actual point of no return. I have no idea how they calculated that 2.9 trillion tons of CO2 is the runaway point of no return. Somehow I get the impression that as we near the so called point of no return, the infield field workers will dig up the goalposts and move them further apart.

peterh
Reply to  Willis Eschenbach
September 16, 2018 6:58 pm

Moonbeam is leaving next January. For the next month and a half your energy would be better spent trying to defeat New-scum. If we’re lucky, very lucky, we can get 4 years with California goobernment in legislative gridlock and someone halfway sane heading the Executive.

September 15, 2018 3:35 pm

Still it’s just a Drop in the bucket compared to the amount being wasted by Gov Moonbeam on the low-speed train to nowhere from nowhere. He’s already put some of the carbon tax money to that albatross of massive debt.
The satellites (microsatellites) would not even be a rounding error on the train budget.

September 15, 2018 3:38 pm

Gov Brown’s final gesture will be to sign an order compelling all radio telescopes in California to start more focused searches for extraterrestrial life signals, so that he will know where to aim the rocket his state builds to send a message to those beings to help California find a new source of non-fossil fuel, non-nuclear energy that WILL work.

… more California dreamin’ going on here. I’m sure the tax payers won’t mind their money being spent on off-planet pursuits. Let’s see now, we have streets getting painted white, regulations compelling all renewable energy, and now a state-built satellite to monitor the magical molecule. What I want to know is who will be cast as Gov Brown in the movie made out of all this. First we have to come up with a good movie title. Then we have to decide whether the movie will be a comedy (my vote) or something more serious, like an end-of-the-world thing.

The comedy would be called Gettin’ Down With Brown. The serious movie would be called Hot Hell California, using the Eagle’s song, Hotel California as the theme song.

Reply to  Robert Kernodle
September 16, 2018 1:33 pm

‘Gone with the Mind’ ??

Just saying’ – and I think it has not been done before. Not quite.

Auto

September 15, 2018 3:39 pm

I hope Gavin cancels the ‘bullet’train and this satellite.

Gamecock
September 15, 2018 3:41 pm

‘The suggestion that the satellite will “pinpoint and stop destructive emissions” seems a bit ominous, given that the satellite’s capabilities have not yet been finalised.’

I’m thinking big laser. Operated by Schwarzenegger.

ScienceABC123
September 15, 2018 3:52 pm

Does Jerry Brown even know how to fly a lite? I seriously doubt it.

ScienceABC123
Reply to  ScienceABC123
September 15, 2018 3:53 pm

Sorry, typo “kite” not “lite.”

Neil Watson
September 15, 2018 3:52 pm

Nail dem cows, Moonbeam, track down dem farters!

Derg
September 15, 2018 3:53 pm

Hopefully this satellite has lasers. Jerry can sit in the command center and shoot the emissions. Pew pew…is that a laser sound?

noaaprogrammer
Reply to  Derg
September 15, 2018 6:18 pm

— more like: sizzle, sizzle — as when you fry an insect with a magnifying glass concentrating sunlight.

TonyL
September 15, 2018 3:56 pm

Way Kewl!
“the process is expected to take several years.”
Taking a satellite from concept to launch can take 20 years. We can shorten the time frame a bit because the OCO and OCO2 birds have already done this. Then lengthen the time frame because CARB are moonbats with no comprehension of reality.

“The state will develop the satellite with the San Francisco-based Earth-imaging firm Planet Labs, a company founded by former NASA scientists in 2010.”

These ex-NASA guys have hopped onto the Global Warming Gravy Train *BIGLY*.
Imagine, getting a fat Govt. contract, with guaranteed renewals, no set end date, specs changed on a whim, and only a vague mission statement. All funded by a bunch of left wing ideologues and outright moonbats spending other people’s money like it is going out of style.
These ex-NASA guys are going to ride this one to riches and all the way to retirement.

Anybody wonder why Global Warming just keeps going and going and going ……
Like the Energizer Bunny?
This is exhibit A, it pays, Big Time.

Warren
September 15, 2018 4:05 pm

He’s not going to like the data coming his satellite.
Much of it will be highly inconvenient.
He’ll need a workforce of ‘adjusters’.
But I think what he’s proposing is ok in context.
It’s no more a waste & duplication than most of what NASA/NOAA and the majority of science/academia do day-in-day-out with our money.
Science is heavily into fraud & deception normalised by administrators, governing bodies and politicians.

September 15, 2018 4:15 pm

In the days before modern electronics Kings of old had Court Jesters. So Trump needs such persons in his “Kingdom”.

MJE

Dudley Horscroft
Reply to  Michael
September 15, 2018 11:52 pm

But the court Jesters did a good job in showing up the dafter policies of the King, while his more submissive Ministers were afraid of their jobs – or the loss of their heads.

The Jester was more sensible than the King. Not so Governor Moonbat.

Dudley Horscroft
Reply to  Dudley Horscroft
September 15, 2018 11:54 pm

Sorry. Moonbat or Moonbeam? Does it matter?

September 15, 2018 4:20 pm

Jerry Brown’s actions as governor of California are consistent with the Platonism that he presumably absorbed while living at a convent in studying to be a priest. Like modern global warming climatologists, Plato held the anti-scientific view that abstract objects were real. Platonism was instilled in the minds of global warming climatologists via the notion of “radiative forcing.” A radiative forcing “forces” the global surface air temperature at equilibrium to rise but as the global surface air temperature is not observable this is not a “scientific” conjecture.

Reply to  Terry Oldberg
September 15, 2018 4:33 pm

Oops. Please append “at equilibrium” to “global surface air temperature” in the last sentence of my post.

Reply to  Terry Oldberg
September 15, 2018 5:26 pm

The TDS that Brown suffers is surely just a manifestation of his own mind. And like his climate religion, his TDS hallucinations are as real as the hallucinations he had when he was dropping acid in 1960’s. Moonbeam probably still has flashback episodes from his days on the MagicBus.

Cassio
Reply to  Terry Oldberg
September 16, 2018 7:08 am

Terry Oldberg
September 15, 2018 at 4:20 pm:

“Like modern global warming climatologists, Plato held the anti-scientific view that abstract objects were real.”

What is “anti-scientific” about it, Terry? I am at a loss to understand you.

London247
September 15, 2018 4:24 pm

Like the old angels dancing on the head of a pin. A question for Californians. Is the production and consumption of marijuana carbon-neutral?

Martin557
Reply to  London247
September 15, 2018 5:07 pm

I think I can guess who’s been using. Maybe they plan on paying for the satellite from the taxes of the weed.

September 15, 2018 4:33 pm

This entire “climate summit” is nothing but climate alarmist hype. There is no plan whatsoever as to how or when the purely political schemes floated at this “summit” will produce any results that actually reduces the increasing global emissions path that is so clearly present world developing nations.
The so called California satellite is just more hype. No launch date, no design details about the satellite, its systems or how it fits into a non existent plan related to the “summits” unspecified goals, timetable and objectives.
Just phony climate alarmist political gobbledegook fabricated by a media devoid of any real world relevance or significance.

M__ S__
September 15, 2018 4:51 pm

Because clearly California is just rolling in money and can’t imagine what to d with all the resources.

yarpos
September 15, 2018 4:55 pm

more satellites for settled science? surely not

will it have an onboard adjustment engine to ensure Moonbeam and his successors see what they expect to see?

should build his own damn EVs as well, I hear there is an opportunity right now

and maybe a CO2 wall?

Chris
September 15, 2018 4:58 pm

With CO2 levels above the Amazon forests among the highest – I guess that will have to be the first to go. Oh well, at least it will be for the common good.

September 15, 2018 4:58 pm

From the summary at the start of the above article: “The state will develop the satellite with the San Francisco-based Earth-imaging firm Planet Labs . . .”
Uhhhh . . . I thought all State-authorized construction projects in California required open and competitive bidding and objective evaluation of submitted proposals, or at least presentation of overwhelming reasons as to why a sole-source bid is acceptable.
It appears to be time for filing for records disclosure under California Public Records Act (Statutes of 1968, Chapter 1473; currently codified as California Government Code §§ 6250 through 6276.48) as to why Moonbeam Brown has already selected Planet Labs to build the satellite for California.

MarkW
Reply to  Gordon Dressler
September 16, 2018 10:35 am

Regulations were meant to keep conservatives from wasting state money.
Since liberals know themselves to be perfect, they aren’t bound by anything as trivial as laws or regulations.

Ken Mitchell
September 15, 2018 5:14 pm

So Jerry Moonbeam is going to launch his own satellite? There is NO WAY that Jerry Brown or the State of California will be able to launch their own satellite on their own.

However, I’m certain that Elon Musk and SpaceX will be delighted to do that for a nominal price. They’ve gotten pretty good at that stuff over the past few years.

Reply to  Ken Mitchell
September 15, 2018 5:44 pm

The newest thing are these shoebox size microsatellites cost only $50K or so apiece. They have GPS chipset for accurate position information, a small solar array that deploys after ejection from the launch bus to keep their small battery charged, and and a data communications transmitter not much more than an iPhone/qualcomm spread-spectrum transmitter in the S band downlink spectrum.

The idea is to deploy a dozen or so for about $1Million as an add-on to an already launching vehicle, a piggy-back ride to LEO. EjJected by a timer during a coast phase on the bus. They continually take pictures with whatever imagining sensor with wavelength filter they were equipped with. No moving parts. No sophisticated maneuvering thrusters or stabilization system (no flywheels), just a gravity-gradient to stabilize them. If they malfunction, no big loss. They are in orbits below 225 miles so they re-enter and completely burn-up in less than a year so as not to clutter-up higher orbits. Then they are regularly replaced.

John Tillman
Reply to  Joel O'Bryan
September 15, 2018 8:01 pm

Joel,

Could we not just piggyback Gov. Brown into low Earth orbit, so that he could monitor CO2 for a year before burning up on reentry? Granted he’s bigger than a shoebox.

John Tillman
Reply to  John Tillman
September 15, 2018 8:03 pm

The Moonbeam has been a Space Cadet long enough. Time to put him to work, I say.

Reply to  Joel O'Bryan
September 16, 2018 7:22 am

Just great. But shouldn’t there be a specific purpose for deploying such an array of satellites (above and beyond duplicating data already available from US sensing satellites.
I haven’t heard any unique data that Moonbeam’s satellites are designed to obtain, just some generalities . . . a classic case of putting the cart coming before the horse.

Wiliam Haas
September 15, 2018 5:38 pm

What exactly does Gov. Brown want to monitor. The reality is that the climate change we are experiencing today is caused by the sun and the oceans over which mankind has no control. Despite the hype there is no real evidence that CO2 has any effect on climate and plenty of scientific rationale that the climate sensitivity of CO2 is zero. The climate sensitivity of a gas is the temperature change that would result from a doubling of the amount of that gas in the Earth’s atmosphere. The gas in the Earth’s atmosphere with the greatest climate sensitivity is not CO2 but rather N2.

markl
Reply to  Wiliam Haas
September 15, 2018 6:16 pm

“What exactly does Gov. Brown want to monitor.” He doesn’t know but he knows there’s something he can find that proves if/where man is using fossil fuels and it jeopardizes earth’s environment worse than nature does.

philincalifornia
Reply to  Wiliam Haas
September 15, 2018 7:12 pm

You might want to explain that one a bit further, with some math WH. I think I know where you’re coming from (almost doubling of surface pressure), but it’s not so clear.

Barbara
September 15, 2018 6:19 pm

UNFCCC

UN Climate Press Release / 14 SEP, 2018

“Global Climate Action Summit Brings Surge of New Commitments and Calls for Increased Government Action”

“Top UN official welcomed the outcome of the Global Climate Action Summit that concluded today in San Francisco, …”

More attention should be paid to the UN / UNFCCC role in this Summit?

https://unfccc.int/news/global-climate-action-summit-brings-surge-of-new-commitments-and-calls-for-increased-government

Barbara
Reply to  Barbara
September 15, 2018 9:25 pm

UNFCCC

ANNOUNCEMENT / 14 SEP, 2018, San Francisco

“Revamped UN Climate Action Portal to Capture and Drive Climate Action”

Re: the NAZCA Climate Action Portal
https://unfccc.int/news/revamped-un-climate-action-portal-to-capture-and-drive-climate-action

Artiem2112
September 15, 2018 6:22 pm

Um, what about NASA’s OCO-2 (Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2)? They launched that monstrosity in July of 2014, released one ‘picture’ from it, and then nobody ever heard about it again. My guess is that NASA quickly learned that the popular Co2 narrative was a crock of BS and proceeded to bury anything/everything related to OCO-2. If you look it up on NASA’s website most of the links regarding it lead to 404 errors and ‘content not found’ errors.
Mr. Moonbeam might want to consult with NASA before he commits any CA taxpayer dollars to another space-based fiasco….

philincalifornia
Reply to  Artiem2112
September 15, 2018 7:17 pm

Artiem2112, yeah I mentioned that satellite at the top of this comments section.

Did anyone keep those images and videos of the original data showing increased CO2 over and close to warm waters and not over industrialized regions? Have they all been disappeared?

John Tillman
Reply to  Artiem2112
September 15, 2018 10:07 pm

OCO-2 files are available. It’s supposed to operate until next year, to be replaced by OCO-3:

https://co2.jpl.nasa.gov/

But you’re right that its inconvenient observations haven’t been ballyhooed.

Artiem2112
Reply to  John Tillman
September 16, 2018 12:43 am

Thanks John Tillman.
What’s funny is that despite these products produced – NOBODY ever published anything for general public consumption. What I mean by that is that nothing from OCO-2 ever made it to the MSM, and nobody – NOBODY – in the general population really even knows it exists. OCO-2 never had any sort of a ‘eureka moment’ because it never found anything worthwhile to report. No ‘smoking gun’, no ‘stop, look, and listen’ data, and nothing worthy of reporting in general – period. For the most part, OCO-2 was a NASA-hyped affair when it launched, but ultimately ended up buried in the same warehouse as the Ark of the Covenant as per Indiana Jones.
In other words – much ado about nothing – because it found nothing….

damp
September 15, 2018 6:28 pm

I was wondering what California was going to do with all their extra money.

Tim Beatty
September 15, 2018 7:39 pm

Headline: Rocketman moonbeam launches spaceforce to detect methane coming from streets of San Francisco.

Mike Smith
September 15, 2018 7:51 pm

Jerry Brown can’t make the DMV function, fill the potholes or any of the basics. Who thinks he can successfully launch a satellite?

RACookPE1978
Editor
Reply to  Mike Smith
September 15, 2018 7:53 pm

What? The DMV is functioning exactly as intended!
It’s registering illegal aliens as fast as possible (actually, faster than possible) to vote (democrat-socialist).

eck
Reply to  RACookPE1978
September 15, 2018 7:59 pm

Bingo!!!

John C. Gardner
September 15, 2018 8:36 pm

California would be better off if it just launched Moonbeam into space (along with much of the Legislature).

[This website does not condone sending trash and contaminates (including politicians of any kind) into near space orbits. .mod]

Greg Cavanagh
Reply to  John C. Gardner
September 16, 2018 2:25 am

Just launch them toward the sun. Keep the solar system clean of garbage.

Reply to  John C. Gardner
September 16, 2018 7:13 am

+10 to the mod

Flight Level
September 15, 2018 11:33 pm

Hey, something has gone terribly wrong.
Tons of papers, diplomas, grades, recommendations are required for even the lowest position in a company. Interviews and evaluations follow.

A politician just needs to get elected. No qualification requirements whatsoever.

In other words, would you feel safe if an airline made the following pre-flight announcement:
-And now Ladies and Gentlemen, we will proceed to the election of our Captain and First Officer amongst the passengers of this flight.

What follows is already part of the statistics.

MarkW
Reply to  Eric Worrall
September 16, 2018 10:40 am

What if we restrict it to people who have held real jobs and paid real taxes?

SAMURAI
September 16, 2018 12:09 am

California has the distinction of being the worst in many respects: the highest poverty rate of all 50 states, the highest number of illegal aliens, ranked 46th in education, has the most human poop and drug needles in the streets of any state, criminally insufficient water resources, the largest homeless pollution in the US, collapsing infrastructure, the highest state/property taxes in the US, the highest state corporate taxes, the highest state regulation compliance costs in the US, some of the highest rents of any state, huge lack of housing availibitly due to insane zoning/environmental laws, etc., etc., etc.,; it’s and economic and social disaster area…

All these collasal problems are a result of Loony Leftist policies that have bankrupted California and made life miserable for most Californians…

Rather than addressing any of these real existential threats, Governor Moombean wants to launch a CO2 Death Star Satellite to address the Fake CAGW ho@x..

The Left has gone completely insane…

Rather than addressing these

Peter Plail
September 16, 2018 10:26 am

Soooo – this satellite is going to pinpoint the sources of destructive CO2 emissions so that they can take action. Maybe it will spot that Europe and the USA have reduced their CO2 emissions and then focus their calls to action on China and India who are responsible for by far the majority of the increases.

kramer
September 16, 2018 3:36 pm

Walking the walk…:

How to fly to a climate change summit? In a private, carbon-spewing jet

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/matier-ross/article/How-to-fly-to-a-climate-change-summit-In-a-13231466.php

kramer
September 16, 2018 3:37 pm

Walking the walk…:

How to fly to a climate change summit? In a private, carbon-spewing jet
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/matier-ross/article/How-to-fly-to-a-climate-change-summit-In-a-13231466.php

Mr. David Laing
September 17, 2018 7:32 am

Bully for Jerry!, but before he spends all that money, shouldn’t he first make sure that CO2 really is the cause of global warming, or is this just too much of a sacred cow to mess with?

Nate
September 17, 2018 9:38 am

will they launch it into orbit with rocket fuel or hopes and dreams? last i checked hopes and dreams dont yield any co2 emissions

kramer
Reply to  Nate
September 17, 2018 1:10 pm

My money says they’l l launch it with giant elastic bands made of organically grown bamboo.