The PREFIRE mission, a collaboration between NASA and Rocket Lab, is designed to study heat loss to space from the Earth’s polar regions. The mission consists of two 6U CubeSats, each carrying a Thermal IR Spectrometer (TIRS) instrument, which will be deployed to a 525km circular orbit from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand.
Studying Heat Loss and Climate Change
The primary objective of the PREFIRE mission is to provide important measurements about how well the Earth’s polar regions are able to cool off. The mission data will inform climate and ice models, providing better projections of how a warming world will affect sea ice loss, ice sheet melt, and sea level rise.