Earlier this year it was made public that Canada had been invited to participate in the NASA led Aerosol, Cloud, Convection and Precipitation (ACCP) proposed missions. Today, the Canadian Space Agency released a request for proposals for three possible instrument contributions. This type of mission fits in very well the climate action agenda of the Liberal government.
That Aerosol, Cloud, Convection and Precipitation proposed missions was the result of a study done for the US National Academies of Sciences Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) 2017 Decadal Survey.
That study, “Thriving on Our Changing Planet: A Decadal Strategy for Earth Observations from Space, “identified five designated foundational observations to be implemented in the next decade. The ACCP Study is concerned with two of these Designated Observables (DO): 1) Aerosols and 2) Clouds, Convection and Precipitation (CCP).”
The RFP released today is for feasibility studies for three instrument; the Aerosol Limb Imager (ALI), the Spatial Heterodyne Observations of Water (SHOW) and the Thin Ice Cloud in Far InfraRed Experiment (TICFIRE).
The CSA is working in concert with scientists from Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) and university scientists.
According to the RFP “the CSA will undertake work by Canadian industry to carefully examine the current instrument concepts, the user and science requirements that were recently established by the Canadian science teams for each of these instruments on the A-CCP mission, the mission constraints imposed by NASA, and technology and design options in order to identify the optimal instrument concept, estimate costs and chart the path to technology readiness. One contract by stream will be awarded.”
One feasibility study contract worth up to $500,000 will be awarded for each instrument. The contracts period is 11 months from contract award.
Other potential partners in the NASA led program include Japan (JAXA), France (CNES) and Germany (DLR).
NASA states that the ACCP missions would include space-based observing systems and suborbital components. A decision on any architectures isn’t expected until late 2021 and a notional launch of spacecraft is no earlier than 2028-29.