By David Bullock
Earth Day was April 22. The environmental movement and its talk of climate change have been a part of the global dialogue since the 1970s. Several changes to the space sector have occurred recently, which focused on the better mapping of greenhouse gases (GHGs), which are one of the major reasons for global warming, which brings about climate change.
MethaneSAT, a GHG-detecting spacecraft launched March 4, 2024 on a Falcon 9 by MethaneSAT LLC, a subsidiary of the Environmental Defense Fund, Incorporated. The satellite’s high multi-spectral resolution can detect concentrations of methane on the Earth from space. These concentrations can come from leaks from pipelines, emissions from closed landfills, or anywhere methane can be found on the Earth.
Momentick, an Israeli data layering software company uses the multi-spectral and hyperspectral data from not only satellites, but drones, UAVs and other aircraft to detect GHGs like methane. They are hoping regulators would be interested in their GHG data, especially as governments and organizations are trying to reduce GHG emissions from the environment.
Despite the launch of MethaneSAT there are now more than a dozen satellites orbiting the Earth that can detect methane. Kashmir would not disclose which satellites his company was using. He did say, by using his company’s algorithms Momentick has a competitive advantage in that it can find GHGs from an aerial image on a country or region-wide scale.
“I think that the emission problem is much, much bigger than anyone imaged,” Momentick’s CEO Daniel Kashmir stated, “We think that in order to reduce emissions, you have to measure it. If you can’t measure it, you can’t reduce it. And it’s critical. We think our services and others are crucial to understand the problem and start reducing it.”
As of April 18, Momentick raised $6.5Mln in seed funding.
Momentick has done a lot of mapping so far. According to Kashmir, the places that have the most methane emissions come from ones with old infrastructure. Eastern Europe is the biggest area with methane emissions, then Africa and then the United States.
Kashmir said his work not only helps the environment but also helps his clients financially, “Sometimes when we are working on a pipeline channel and it can be pretty big. We are telling our customers the exact locations of the leaks. Then they can fix it. They can save lots of money and reduce their emissions critically.”
When asked how Momentick is functioning as a company despite all the problems in the Middle East, Kashmir said, “I think the tech domain here in Israel is working harder, providing the services to our customers. We see it in Momentick and in other companies as well that there is no change. It’s just that maybe we’re working a little bit harder.”