NASA's Kepler telescope nears completion of mission – Spaceflight Now

Almost a decade after the launch of Cape Canaveral for a planet quest that identified 2,650 new worlds beyond our solar system, NASA's Kepler telescope paused .

The decrease in Kepler's fuel supply was not a surprise to mission managers, and engineers predicted that the spacecraft would run out of fuel this year. The observatory uses fuel to point to new star fields in search of planets and to direct its radio transmitter towards the Earth.

Ground controllers interrupted Kepler's observation campaign on July 2. According to an update of the status posted on the mission's website

such a telemetry signature is a sign of low fuel levels, and the authorities have decided to discontinue its current scientific observations, called Campaign 18 , until all telescopes are recorded. Scene data can be connected to the Earth for a pre-arranged four-day period reserved with the Deep Space Network starting August 2nd.

Until then, Kepler will remain in hibernation mode without any scientific prediction. NASA officials said they had decided to put Kepler in secure mode in order to keep 51 days of "high quality" scientific data stored on the spacecraft's semiconductor recorder, in order to prevent the risk of fuel exhaustion. 19659003] Once Kepler has emptied his tank, the spacecraft will no longer be able to direct its antenna to the Earth, thus cutting communications with the observatory. Kepler orbits the sun and is currently about 100 million miles from Earth.

Assuming that the downlink at the beginning of August is successful, Kepler will resume his scientific mission on August 6 by targeting his 95 cm telescope. to a new field of stars to start a new period of observation known as the campaign. The Kepler 95-megapixel camera is designed to detect the revealing hollows of stars caused by a Pbading Planet

Kepler launched on March 6, 2009 in Cape Canaveral aboard a Delta 2 rocket. The first scientific phase of the mission was completed in 2013 after the failure of two of the four reaction wheels of the satellite, which kept the telescope constantly on its stellar targets.

The managers have devised a new way to use Kepler with only two-wheel drive in operation. the mission is currently in an extended phase known as K2. Scientists have confirmed the discovery of 2,650 planets around other stars using Kepler data, and more than 2,700 planets have been detected by Kepler.

NASA authorities have warned that the next season will not be completed if the spacecraft is running on its last pieces of fuel.

Kepler launched with 12 kilograms, or just over 3 gallons, of hydrazine fuel, but he does not carry a fuel gauge. Engineers must instead monitor fuel pressure data and clbadify fuel consumption to estimate the amount of fuel remaining in the spacecraft thrusters

When the ship runs out of fuel, the controllers hope send orders. embedded software that turns them on automatically, a measure to ensure that the telescope does not interfere with radio traffic on future space missions.

NASA's new mission to search for planets, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey satellite. It is designed to search for planets around bright stars nearby, while Kepler was looking for more distant exoplanets Email the author

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