The Orbiting Carbon Observatory -2 and -3, OCO-2 and OCO-3, are currently flying above our heads, as they have been since 2014 and 2019. The satellites’s mission is to collect data about the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, and they have been successful in helping scientists track changes in the climate and agricultural droughts, but this may be cut short by the Trump Administration. 

The federal government is considering ending the satellite missions in part of a larger budget plan for NASA, which will undergo a 24% reduction in the next fiscal year. Congress has to approve a budget for next fiscal year and the recent bills have “proposed maintaining NASA’s science budget or enacting more modest cuts than the Trump administration is pursuing.” The funding cut is part of a Republican-led attempt to cut back investments in climate sciences, Nicholas Kusnetz of Inside Climate News said. 

With these proposed cuts to other satellites such as the Terra and Aura satellites, what will happen if other satellite fundings are cut, and how can this impact what we know about the Earth? 

“Without good information, weather services that use satellites could become less accurate,” Tabitha Bergen, a ninth-grader and Model Congress participant, said.

According to Inside Climate News, “The satellite data can be used to help combat climate change and predict weather patterns that might impact crops’ ability to grow.” OCO-2 and OCO-3 have helped researchers to track agricultural droughts in Asia, and the satellites have also been used to measure climate warming emissions from coal power plants in Poland, Canada, and Montana. 

“I don’t believe that other nations will be doing these cuts as the reason they’re being cut is because of the Trump administration and not some overall failure in their effectiveness,” Jacob Schachter, a Model UN participant, said. If many countries were doing this, it would not necessarily mean that all research on climate change and the climate overall will stop, but it does suggest slow movement, Schachter said.  

The money that would be cut from funding could end up reinvested in other NASA projects,deemed more important, or these funds might be invested into the military.

However, the plan, known as Plan F, might not be the only cut cued up.NASA is looking to reinvest  private funding to maintain  satellite projects. According to NPR, NASA asked universities and private companies to take over the costs for “maintaining the OCO instrument attached to the International Space Station suggests the agency is also considering privatizing NASA science missions.”