CD You've also worked on the Cassini spacecraft's mission to Titan, the largest moon of the planet Saturn. I've heard other scientists who worked on this mission describe the intense grief they felt when Cassini was forced to do a swan-dive into Saturn's atmosphere to burn up, after two decades of exploration. Did you feel attached to Cassini too, and grieve its loss?
MN Cassini was a very emotional mission for me, and I felt a profound attachment to it. This spacecraft was launched in 1997 – the same year I was born. It provided unprecedented insights into Saturn and its moons, particularly Titan, which was my focus. I was working on this mission between Caltech and NASA JPL in 2017, which was the year it had its dive-end into Saturn's atmosphere.
The end of Cassini's mission felt like saying goodbye to a cherished colleague. Everyone around me at Caltech and JPL was experiencing a proud and melancholic moment, marking the conclusion of an historic journey but also the loss of an incredible scientific tool and symbol of human ingenuity. Many scientists around me had been working on the mission since its conception – for its entire lifetime, which matched my own.
CD You’ve described growing up in a family with multi-disciplinary passions, and that you keep your own varied interests alive (in the arts, law, policy) alongside your work as an aerospace engineer. One of these interests is in painting. What appeals to you about it?
MN For me, painting – in its messiness and chaos – is an incredible way to disconnect from daily work, and be able to channel all my emotions into a different medium. As my work in the space sector involves looking at 'macro' scale of the universe, I really enjoy being able to use painting as a tool to focus on the 'micro' scale of the world around us. This is why I enjoy painting nature and landscapes, and more pensive/emotional human themes.
CD As a remote sensing scientist, you're now working on a pioneering project called MethaneSAT. Tell us about this unique mission not only to measure methane emissions (one of the drivers of climate change) from oil and gas operations, but to track these emissions to their source, and hold emitters accountable.
MN MethaneSAT is the first satellite developed by an environmental non-profit, and was launched in March 2024. It has a unique mission to locate, quantify and monitor methane emissions from oil and gas fields globally. By bridging the gap between existing point-source or global mapping remote sensing satellites, MethaneSAT enables high-precision, high-resolution emission estimation over large areas, and from specific sites.
CD It feels like MethaneSAT is the start of a whole new front in the climate fight, because the data about methane emissions (and sources) will be made freely available to the public. Do you think this will lead to other kinds of environmental remote sensing data becoming more transparent and accessible — and to bad actors being held accountable?
MN Yes, MethaneSAT represents a significant shift towards transparency in environmental monitoring. By making methane emission data publicly accessible, it sets a precedent for other types of environmental data to follow. This increased transparency empowers communities, activists, policymakers and methane emitters to develop targeted solutions to reduce emissions quickly and effectively — and to verify those reductions.
