Kepler Space Telescope

[American Patriot]

The planet hunting scope is in trouble.

Is Kepler dead? NASA to give update on planet-hunting telescope

NASA's Kepler space telescope launches from Florida in 2009 to being its exoplanet-hunting mission. (Malcom Denemark / Florida Today / May 15, 2013)

By Karen Kaplan May 15, 2013, 12:34 p.m.




Is NASA’s Kepler planet-hunting telescope dead?


That was the rumor circulating Thursday, nearly a week after the space telescope went into safe mode. NASA will host a news conference at 1 p.m. Pacific time “to discuss the status of the agency's Kepler Space Telescope.” To some, it sounds ominous.


“Not sure I like the sound of this,” tweeted Nancy Atkinson, a senior writer and editor for Universe Today.


“Kepler, we have a problem,” added Paul Crowther, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Sheffield in Britain.


And Caltech’s always quotable Michael Brown (the planetary scientist who demoted Pluto to dwarf planet status) tweeted: “Hmmm, well, Kepler was fun. What's next?”


Kepler launched on March 6, 2009, to begin a 3½-year mission to scour the Milky Way galaxy for signs of Earth-sized planets that could potentially support life. The thinking goes that they must orbit their stars in the “Goldilocks zone” — not too close and not too far, but in the middle zone where water (should there be any) would be in liquid form and temperatures would be “just right” for life.


As of Day 1,530 of its mission, Kepler has confirmed the existence of 132 such exoplanets (planets outside our solar system) and identified 2,740 more exoplanet candidates. Ultimately, the craft should help scientists calculate how many of the hundreds of billions of stars in the Milky Way could have planets capable of supporting life.


NASA engineers contact Kelper twice a week. When they checked in on May 3, they found Kepler in “a self-protective state called a safe mode.” They were able to get it to collect scientific data again, and the telescope sent back data on May 5, a few days ahead of schedule, the agency said.
Where things go from here is now anyone’s guess.


The NASA officials scheduled to speak at the news conference include John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate; Paul Hertz, the astrophysics director; William Borucki, Kepler science principal investigator; and Charles Sobeck, deputy project manager.
NASA had planned to host a Kepler Science Conference at the Ames Research Center in November, but those plans are being reassessed in light of the federal budget sequestration.
Return to Science Now.

[American Patriot]

NASA Hosts Kepler Spacecraft Status Teleconference Today

• Source: NASA HQ
• Posted Wednesday, May 15, 2013

WASHINGTON -- NASA will host a news teleconference at 4 p.m. EDT, today, May 15, to discuss the status of the agency's Kepler Space Telescope.

Kepler is the first NASA mission capable of finding Earth-size planets in or near the habitable zone, which is the range of distance from a star where the surface temperature of an orbiting planet might be suitable for liquid water. Launched in 2009, Kepler has been detecting planets and planet candidates with a wide range of sizes and orbital distances to help scientists better understand our place in the galaxy.

The briefing participants are:

-- John Grunsfeld, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington
-- Paul Hertz, astrophysics director, NASA Headquarters, Washington
-- William Borucki, Kepler science principal investigator, Ames Research Center, Calif.
-- Charles Sobeck, deputy project manager, Ames Research Center, Calif.

For dial-in information, journalists should e-mail their name, affiliation and telephone number to J.D. Harrington at j.d.harrington@nasa.gov. Media representatives and the public also can questions via Twitter to #AskNASA.

Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live on NASA's website at: http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

For more information about the Kepler mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/kepler

[American Patriot]

Rumors swirling that Kepler, its mission not yet done, may be kaput

Wednesday, May 15, 2013



The Kepler spacecraft has been a phenomenal success for NASA — discovering nearly 3,000 planet candidates around other stars and confirming that planets are bountiful in our galaxy.

But rumors are now swirling that the probe, which began operations in late 2009, may no longer be fully operational. NASA has scheduled a briefing at 3 p.m. CT today to discuss the issue.


NASA’s Kepler spacecraft appears to be ill. (NASA)

Originally designed for a 3.5-year mission, it was determined the probe would need additional time to fulfill all of its goals.

As its primary mission, Kepler was designed to identify the fraction of stars in our galaxy that have Earth-sized planets. It will take more time to do that, one of the probe’s chief scientists, Natalie Batalha, told me a year ago:

To answer that question we need more time to find more cases of planets of that type. It takes more time to find planets further out from their stars, because there’s more time between transits. So with four years of data we expect to be able to figure out the number of stars with Earth sized planets in the habitable zone. We’ve got a lot of work to do to get that. Probably at least four more years.

So until 2016.

If Kepler is truly done, it’s done some great work, discovering Earth-like worlds that may have water on them, finding a planet as small as Mercury, and allowed scientists to conclude there are at least 100 billion planets in the Milky Way Galaxy, and likely much more.

But it likely will not have fulfilled its primary mission.

Unlike the Hubble Space Telescope, there’s no way to get astronauts to Kepler to effect a fix, even if the space shuttle were still flying. Kepler is trailing the Earth in its orbit around the Sun, and is now about half the distance between the Earth and Sun behind our planet, some 45 million miles or so. We have no capability to get astronauts nearly so far from Earth.

[American Patriot]

Equipment Failure May Cut Kepler Mission Short

Ball Aerospace
The primary mirror of the Kepler telescope being installed before it left for its mission to discover Earth-like planets in Earth-like places.

By DENNIS OVERBYE

Published: May 15, 2013

NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft has been crippled by the failure of one of the reaction wheels that keep it pointed, the space agency is announcing this afternoon, according to astronomers close to the situation.



Multimedia

Interactive Feature
Kepler’s Tally of Planets

Interactive Graphic



Jack Pfaller/NASA

The spacecraft on a launching pad at Cape Canaveral.




If engineers cannot restore the wheel or find some other way to keep the spacecraft’s telescope pointed, it could spell a premature end to one of the most romantic and successful of NASA’s missions: the search for Earth-like planets in habitable orbits around other stars. Just last month, astronomers reported that Kepler had found two planets only slightly larger than Earth orbiting in the “Goldilocks” zone, where liquid water is possible, of a star 1,200 light-years from here. More planet candidates, even smaller and closer to being Earth-like, lurk in the pipeline, astronomers say, but they have not yet been confirmed.


Kepler was launched in March 2009. Its mission was to determine the fraction of stars in the galaxy that harbor Earth-like planets by carrying out a survey of some 150,000 stars in the constellations of Cygnus and Lyra, looking for the dips in starlight caused by planets passing, or transiting, in front of their suns. To date, the spacecraft has identified 115 planets and has a list of 2,740 other candidates.


Since Earth transits only once a year, two more years would have given astronomers a chance to see more transits of the planets they are looking for. Without the extra time, the data will be noisy, astronomers say, and so the answer will be a little more uncertain than it might have been.


“It was one of those things that was a gift to humanity,” said one astronomer who spoke on condition of anonymity because NASA had not yet made the news public. “We’re all going to lose for sure.”


In January engineers noticed that one of the reaction wheels that keep the spacecraft pointed was experiencing too much friction. They shut the spacecraft down for a couple of weeks to give it a rest, in the hopes that the wheel’s lubricant would spread out and solve the problem. But when they turned it back on, the friction was still there. Until now, the problem had not interfered with observations, which are scheduled to go on until at least 2016.


Kepler was launched with four reaction wheels, but one failed last year after showing signs of erratic friction. Three wheels are required to keep Kepler properly and precisely aimed. Loss of the wheel has robbed it of the ability to detect Earth-size planets, although project managers hope to remedy the situation. The odds, astronomers said, are less than 50-50.

[Ryan Ruck]

Quick! Someone call John Kerry!

[American Patriot]

Hell I figured Al Gore has something to do with this, he invented the Internet and invented Global Warming. He ought to be able to fix a simple space craft...

[American Patriot]

Breakdown Imperils NASA’s Hunt for Other Earths

NASA/JPL, via Associated Press
The Kepler telescope, seen in an artist rendition, has been shut down after the failure of one of the wheels that keep it pointed.

By DENNIS OVERBYE

Published: May 15, 2013

NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft has been shut down by the failure of one of the reaction wheels that keep it pointed, the space agency announced Wednesday.



Multimedia

Interactive Feature
Kepler’s Tally of Planets

Interactive Graphic
Searching for Habitable Planets


A section of the Milky Way that includes the Kepler field of view. The telescope has identified 130 planets since 2009.




“I wouldn’t call Kepler down and out yet,” said John Grunsfeld, a former astronaut and Hubble repairman who is NASA’s associate administrator for space science, at a news conference.


But he and others said that if engineers could not restore the wheel or find some other way to keep the spacecraft’s telescope precisely pointed, the failure could end one of the most romantic and successful of NASA’s missions: the search for Earth-like planets in habitable orbits around other stars. Just last month, astronomers reported that Kepler had found two planets, only slightly larger than Earth, orbiting a star 1,200 light-years from here in the Goldilocks zone, where liquid water is possible.


More potentially habitable planets, even smaller and more Earth-like, lurk in the pipeline, astronomers say, but have not yet been confirmed. “We believe there are planets there that we haven’t found yet,” said William Borucki of NASA’s Ames Research Center, the founder and leader of the Kepler effort.


As word leaked about the possible loss of Kepler, the mood in the astronomical community was grim. “It was one of those things that was a gift to humanity,” said one astronomer, who spoke on condition of anonymity before NASA made the news public. “We’re all going to lose, for sure.”


Kepler, launched in March 2009, orbits the sun at roughly the same distance as Earth. Its mission is to determine the fraction of stars in the galaxy that harbor Earth-like planets by carrying out a survey of some 150,000 stars in the constellations of Cygnus and Lyra, looking for the dips in starlight caused by planets passing, or transiting, in front of their suns. The spacecraft has identified 130 planets and 2,740 other candidates. About 230 are the size of Earth, and 820 others are only twice as big as Earth and are probably rocky worlds similar to our own, Mr. Borucki said.


Kepler’s mission has cost $600 million so far. It was designed to operate for four years, but last year it was extended three more years, until 2016.


Since the Earth transits the Sun only once a year, two more years would give astronomers a chance to see more transits of the planets they are looking for, ones with orbits similar to our own. Without the extra time, the data will be noisy, astronomers say, so the answer will be a little more uncertain than it might have been. Geoffrey Marcy, a Kepler astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley, said that without more data coming from Kepler, he thought astronomers would be “right on the edge” of answering the question of how common other Earths are, but with less statistical certainty than originally desired.


In January, engineers noticed that one of the reaction wheels that keep the spacecraft pointed was experiencing too much friction. They shut down the spacecraft for a couple of weeks to give it a rest, in the hope that the wheel’s lubricant would spread out and solve the problem. But when they turned it back on, the friction was still there. Until now, the problem had not interfered with observations, but on Tuesday, the spacecraft went into a so-called safe mode, and the engineers determined that the reaction wheel had stopped.


Kepler was launched with four reaction wheels, but one failed last year after showing signs of erratic friction. Three wheels are required to keep Kepler properly and precisely aimed, and now there are only two. The lack of three working wheels probably robs it of the ability to point precisely enough to detect Earth-size planets.


Project managers hope to remedy the situation by rocking the wheel back and forth, or perhaps resurrecting the wheel that failed last year, an effort that will probably take several months, according to Kepler’s deputy project manager, Charles Sobeck of the Ames Research Center. It would take that long as well to figure out what else the telescope, which is itself in fine condition, can be used for if it can no longer hunt planets.


Mr. Borucki said that the Kepler project had been a long journey — and a phenomenal success — and that he was not ready to pronounce it over. When Kepler was conceived, he said, nobody knew if any other stars had planets; now we know that almost every star in the galaxy has a planet and that the nearest exoplanet might be only 10 light-years away. “I’m delighted and surprised with what we have done,” he said.


For Mr. Grunsfeld, who played mechanic to the Hubble telescope during several lengthy spacewalks, the Kepler malfunction looked particularly frustrating. “Unfortunately, it’s not in a place where I can go and fix it,” he said.

[American Patriot]

Efforts to save a $600 million tool in NASA’s quest for life elsewhere in the universe have been unsuccessful, the space agency said -- but there's still life left in the robotic planet hunter.
In May, a specialized gyroscopic wheel used to point the Kepler Space Telescope toward the sun failed, the second such failed wheel. And despite months of analysis and testing, the spacecraft will never be restored to working order. But despite the breakdown, Kepler has proven a remarkable success, NASA said.
"Kepler has made extraordinary discoveries in finding exoplanets including several super-Earths in the habitable zone," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "Knowing that Kepler has successfully collected all the data from its prime mission, I am confident that more amazing discoveries are on the horizon."
NASA said its efforts will now turn to making the most of the research craft while it still can.
Kepler is the first NASA mission capable of finding Earth-size planets in or near the habitable zone, the range of distance from a star where the surface temperature of an orbiting planet might be suitable for liquid water. Launched in 2009, it has discovered thousands of such planets, including a pair just 1,200 light years away.
Called Kepler-62-e and Kepler-62-f, the news of their discovery came in April. But shortly after, Kepler’s mission ran into trouble.
Kepler is powered by four solar panels, and the spacecraft must execute a 90-degree roll every 3 months to reposition them toward the sun while keeping its eye precisely aimed. Kepler launched with four wheels to control that motion -- two of them have now failed.
Kepler will continue working, and NASA will look to reduce fuel consumption to extend the lifespan of the spacecraft. For example, a different mode of steering Kepler will enable NASA to extend its life by years, explained Charles Sobeck, deputy project manager with Ames Research Center.
“We’re not down and out. The spacecraft is safe, it is stable,” Sobeck said in May. And regardless, Kepler is already a win for NASA.
“The mission itself has been spectacularly successful,” he added. Most other scientists agree.
The quest for “exoplanets” has generated enormous interest among the public and with scientists. And it will continue. A second mission will launch in 2017 and will use the same method that Kepler has used to continue the mission; it will seek the closest exoplanet -- which may be under two dozen light years away.
The James Webb Space Telescope will also help in the quest for life in the universe.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/...#ixzz2c4HwEODJ