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NASA's Kepler Planet Hunting Telescope is "close to death," it has been revealed.
Earlier this week, NASA's Kepler team received an indication that the spacecraft's fuel tank was running very low.
The space agency said that the nine-year-old telescope is now in a "hibernation" state while operators are trying to download data from it.
Once the data is downloaded, we expect "The next campaign with the rest of the fuel," NASA says.
Since May 12, Kepler is in his 18th observation campaign, fixing a parcel of sky towards the constellation of Cancer that he studied in 2015.
This second look will provide astronomers with the opportunity to confirm previous exoplanet candidates and discover new ones.
Returning data to Earth is the highest priority for remaining fuel.
To bring the data back home, the spacecraft must return its large antenna to Earth and transmit the data during its allocated time. is scheduled for early August.
Until then, the spacecraft will remain stable and parked in a safe mode for the use of fuel.
On August 2, the team will order the spacecraft to wake up from its fuel-free state and maneuver the spacecraft.
If the maneuver and download are successful, the team will begin its 19th observation campaign on August 6 with the remaining fuel.
NASA will provide an update after the scheduled download.
The agency is closely monitoring the Kepler spacecraft looking for signs of low fuel levels and expects that it will run out of fuel in the coming months.
While engineers keep the new data stored on the spacecraft, extract existing data already in the field.
Among other discoveries, 24 new discoveries of the planet have recently been made using data from the 10th observation campaign, adding to the increasing generosity of the spacecraft from 2,650 confirmed planets.
Since its launch in 2009, the telescope has spotted thousands of exoplanets outside our solar system, despite mechanical failures and being "dynamited by cosmic rays," NASA notes.
Now, Kepler has little fuel in the tank, which means his mission in deep space will soon be over.
"With a gas station in space, the spaceship will run out of fuel," writes Charlie Sobeck, chief engineer of Kepler, in a blog post.
"We hope to reach that moment in a few months," he added.
Without a gas gauge, scientists looked for "warning signs" of a low fuel level, such as pressure drops in fuel tank pressure and changes in propeller performance of the telescope.
All in all, scientists do not have a precise knowledge of exactly when the spacecraft will die.
But NASA will continue to operate Kepler as long as possible, in the hope of being able to record all the discoveries of the exoplanets of the eleventh hour.
Then, with a bit of luck, they will be able to "bring the beam back to the ground before the loss of the gasoline thrusters" means that they can not aim at Kepler for data transfer.
"We want to stop collecting data while we are still comfortable that we can target the spacecraft and bring it back to Earth," said Sobeck.
While scientists set a rough estimate of Kepler's remaining lifespan, they remain optimistic.
"We were surprised by his performance before!," Says Sobeck.
In 2013, Kepler's first mission was completed when a second reaction wheel broke, which meant that the spacecraft could not keep a stare. to his original field of vision.
But Kepler soon received a new breath, as NASA gave him a new mission, called K2.
This forced the spacecraft to move its field of vision to new portions of the sky. every three months, notes Sobeck.
Interestingly, Kepler used the sun's pressure to maintain his gaze, "like a kayak in the stream."
The agency initially assumed that K2 could only lead 10 campaigns with the remaining fuel.
However, Kepler swept NASA's expectations out of the water, when he completed an astonishing 16 campaigns.
The spacecraft enters its 17th campaign this month, Sobeck said.
"While we expect the air operations to be over soon, we are ready to continue as long as the fuel allows," he added.
That said, NASA will also be cautious because it does not want to have an "uncontrolled fall".
In the past, NASA directed dying spacecraft on certain paths to avoid hazards
Last September, NASA sent the Cassini spacecraft on a "diving dive". "death" in Saturn, rather than risk falling into one of the moons of the planet, explained the agency.
But there is less risk with Kepler – especially because he's so far out in space, says Sobeck. Far-space missions like Kepler are far from Earth or sensitive environments, which means we can afford to extract all the latest spacecraft data, which means that we will have even more data for science. 19659002] "Who knows what surprises in our universe will be in this last link to the earth?"
Even though Kepler will finally arrive at the end of his life, Sobeck stressed that all hope is not lost.
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey (TESS) satellite will be launched at Cape Canaveral, Florida on April 16th.
Similar to Kepler, TESS will scan the sky to find planets that lie outside our solar system.
NASA says that TESS will focus on the brightest stars within 300 light-years, which "will add to Kepler's treasure of the planet's discoveries."
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