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NASA scientists are preparing to download the latest piece of data stored in its Kepler Space Telescope in search of plants, as the spacecraft is now operating "very low" on fuel. The US Space Agency has placed the spacecraft in a fuel-free mode to save fuel remaining so that data extraction can be completed, NASA said Friday.
On August 2nd, the Kepler team will command the spacecraft to wake up from its state of use without fuel and maneuver the spacecraft to the proper orientation and downlink data. Once the data has been downloaded, we expect to start the observations for the next campaign with the remaining fuel.
But for the moment, sending the data back to Earth is the "highest priority" for the remaining fuel.
Since May 12, Kepler is in his 18th observational campaign, fixing a parcel of sky toward the constellation of Cancer that he had studied in 2015.
Data from this second look provide astronomers with the opportunity to confirm exoplanet candidates and discover new ones.
To bring the data home, the spacecraft must return its large antenna to Earth and transmit the data during its allocated time in the Deep Space network, which is scheduled for early August.
Until then, the spacecraft will remain stable and parked in a safe mode without fuel.
If the maneuver and download are successful, the team will begin its 19th observation campaign on August 6 with the remaining fuel, NASA said, adding that it will provide an update after the scheduled download.
The US Space Agency is closely monitoring the Kepler spacecraft looking for signs of low fuel consumption for some time now, and expects it to be running out of fuel in the coming months
. specially designed to explore our Milky Way region in order to discover hundreds of planets of the size and size of the Earth in or near the living area and determine the fraction of the hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy .
Among other discoveries, 24 new discoveries of the planet were made using data from the 10th observation campaign, adding to the growing generosity of 2650 confirmed planets.
The Kepler Space Telescope, which is now 94 million miles from Earth, has survived many potential knock-outs during its nine-year flight, from mechanical failures to being dynamited by cosmic rays.
In 2013, Kepler's main mission ended when a second reaction wheel broke, rendering him unable to maintain his stable gaze on the original field of vision.
The spacecraft received a new life using the pressure of sunlight to maintain its pointing, like a steering kayak in the current.
Reborn as "K2", this extended mission requires that the spacecraft move its field of vision to new parts of the sky about every three months in what scientists call a "campaign".
Initially, the Kepler team believed that the K2 mission could run 10 campaigns with the remaining fuel.
It turns out that scientists were too conservative in their estimation. The mission has already completed 17 campaigns, and since May 12, Kepler is in its 18th observation campaign
But scientists now know that his life will soon end.
NASA launched another planet-hunting spacecraft, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TES), in April.
After the Kepler Space Telescope, Tess is the second spacecraft to search for planets outside our solar system. support life.
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