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Not wanting to go quietly in this good night, the Kepler Space Telescope is collecting scientific data again, despite a faulty booster and extremely low fuel levels.
With the $ 600 million Kepler Space Telescope on top of our tank lists, this brief report released yesterday by NASA is a rather pleasant and unexpected surprise:
The Kepler spacecraft began collecting scientific data on Aug. 29 for its 19th observation campaign. After being awakened from standby mode, the spacecraft configuration was changed due to the unusual behavior of one of the thrusters. According to preliminary indications, the pointing performance of the telescope could be somewhat degraded. We still do not know how much fuel remains; NASA continues to monitor the health and performance of the spacecraft.
Unbelievable. After nine years of active service, an impending death experience in 2013 and 2,332 exoplanets confirmed, Kepler remains the small space telescope.
On August 24, Kepler was put on standby after an abnormal drop in fuel pressure, but not before transmitting the data collected during the 18th K2 phase of the mission. As the spacecraft was hibernating (for the second time in as many months) and perhaps waiting for death, the mission controllers were carefully monitoring Kepler's condition, trying to determine if he could participate in another investigation and
In the end, there is still some life left in this fighter, Kepler coming back on duty on August 29, but with some limitations. There is apparently no problem with Kepler, apart from the low fuel level and a problem with one of his eight thrusters. Oh, and the fact that Kepler could only use two of his four reaction control wheels, which he uses to maintain his focus, since 2013.
Alison Hawkes, a spokesperson at NASA's Ames Research Center, told SpaceNews that "one of the eight thrusters had shown unreliable performances, but the team felt that the mere removal of the thruster when shooting from accuracy could lead to acceptable performance. "As a result, the changes were made and the 19 campaign was, so to speak, in progress."
The cause of the defective thruster is not known, but the low fuel level may be related to this. NASA does not really know. But if the other thrusters start to fail, it's a good sign that the low fuel level is there for something.
With one of the eight thrusters stopped, Kepler is now less stable against incoming solar pressure, making the telescope's pointing performance a little less accurate. NASA will not know if Kepler is making any quality observations until the data is retransmitted to Earth, which should happen in a few months. Unless, of course, Kepler runs out of fuel, eventually ending the mission that started in 2009. Unfortunately, Kepler does not have a fuel gauge, so it's a bit of a guessing game.
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The end of the Kepler era is sad, no doubt, but NASA's Exoplanet Monitoring Satellite (TESS) was put into service on July 25, 2018. The hunt for distant exoplanets is just beginning.
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