industry news
Subscribe Now

Mercury’s data recorder to help monitor global warming

Company selected by Ball Aerospace for methane emissions monitoring program

ANDOVER, Mass., June 21, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Mercury Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: MRCY, www.mrcy.com), a leader in trusted, secure mission-critical technologies for aerospace and defense, announced it was selected by Ball Aerospace to enhance the data recording and storage performance for MethaneSAT, the methane monitoring satellite being developed by a subsidiary of the non-profit Environmental Defense Fund. With MethaneSAT, nations and companies will be able to identify, manage and reduce methane emissions and help slow the rate at which the Earth is warming.

Mercury’s data storage technology delivers the high performance and sustainability required to operate successfully in space’s harsh, radiation-intense environment. Ball’s MethaneSAT spectrometer will incorporate Mercury’s RH3440 3U VPX high-density solid-state data recorder (SSDR), allowing the state-of-the-art satellite to gather critical data needed to solve environmental sustainability issues. The digital recorder is optimized for size, weight and power (SWaP) and is radiation tolerant – crucial for a successful space mission. Moreover, since data will be generated at a rate much higher than can be telemetered, Mercury’s “store-and-forward” features allow delayed data transmission to ground stations while maintaining data integrity until the data can be transmitted.

Why it Matters
The fastest way to slow climate change is by reducing methane emissions, a powerful climate pollutant. Data from MethaneSAT, supported by Mercury’s high-density SSDR, will help do just that.

“Mercury is honored to work with Ball Aerospace and MethaneSAT on this unique mission to monitor methane emissions from space,” said Tom Smelker, vice president and general manager, Mercury Microsystems. “We look forward to equipping the Ball Aerospace spectrometer and MethaneSAT with a reliable, high-performance and radiation-tolerant data storage solution, all in support of our vision: to make the world a safer, more secure place for all.”

Mercury envisions, creates and delivers innovative technology solutions purpose-built to meet its customers’ most pressing high-tech needs. For more information, visit mrcy.com or contact Mercury at (866) 627-6951 or info@mrcy.com. For more information on MethaneSAT, visit methanesat.org.

Mercury Systems – Innovation That Matters®
Mercury Systems is a global commercial technology company serving the aerospace and defense industry. Headquartered in Andover, Mass., the company delivers trusted, secure open architecture processing solutions powering a broad range of mission-critical applications in the most challenging and demanding environments. Inspired by its purpose of delivering Innovation that Matters, By and For People Who Matter, Mercury helps make the world a safer, more secure place for all. To learn more, visit mrcy.com, or follow us on Twitter.

One thought on “Mercury’s data recorder to help monitor global warming”

Leave a Reply

featured blogs
Apr 24, 2026
A thought experiment in curiosity, confusion, and cosmic consequences....

featured paper

Quickly and accurately identify inter-domain leakage issues in IC designs

Sponsored by Siemens Digital Industries Software

Power domain leakage is a major IC reliability issue, often missed by traditional tools. This white paper describes challenges of identifying leakage, types of false results, and presents Siemens EDA’s Insight Analyzer. The tool proactively finds true leakage paths, filters out false positives, and helps circuit designers quickly fix risks—enabling more robust, reliable chip designs. With detailed, context-aware analysis, designers save time and improve silicon quality.

Click to read more

featured chalk talk

GaN for Humanoid Robots
Sponsored by Mouser Electronics and Infineon
In this episode of Chalk Talk, Eric Persson and Amelia Dalton explore why power is the key driver for efficient and reliable robot movements and how GaN technologies can help motor control solutions be more compact, integrated and efficient. They also investigate the role of field-oriented control in humanoid robotic applications and why the choice of a GaN power transistor can make all the difference in your next humanoid robot project!
Apr 20, 2026
6,146 views