Unwilling to go softly into that well night , the Kepler Space Telescope is once again gathering scientific information — despite a misfunction thruster and sorely gloomy level of fuel .
With the $ 600 million Kepler Space Telescopehigh atop our dead pool list , thisbrief reportpublished yesterday by NASA hail as a rather pleasant and unexpected surprisal :
The Kepler space vehicle began hoard scientific discipline data on Aug. 29 for its 19th observation campaign . After being rouse from sleep style the spacecraft ’s constellation has been modified due to unusual behavior exhibit by one of the pusher . Preliminary indications are that the telescope ’s point performance may be somewhat degrade . It remains unclear how much fuel stay ; NASA continue to monitor the health and carrying into action of the spacecraft .
unbelievable . After nine years of combat-ready service , a near - last experience in 2013 , and 2,327 reassert exoplanets under its belt , Kepler continues to be the small outer space - based scope that could .
Back on August 24 , Kepler was put into sleep mode after an anomalous cliff in fuel pressure — but not before transmitting information collect during the eighteenth campaign of the K2 form of the missionary station . As the ballistic capsule hibernated ( for the 2d meter in as many months ) and possibly wait for expiry , mission control carefully monitored Kepler ’s health , endeavor to figure out if it could participate in another sketch , and if so , which functions might still be available .
As it turns out , there ’s still some lifetime left in this combatant , with Kepler returning to active duty on August 29 — though with some limitations . There ’s apparently nothing incorrect with Kepler , aside from the low fuel and an issue with one of its eight thruster . Oh , and the fact that Kepler has only been able to usetwo of its four reaction control wheel , which it uses to observe orientation , since 2013 .
“ One of the eight thrusters had exhibit unreliable operation , but the team estimated that merely removing the pusher from exercise during precision pointing ignition could result in satisfactory system functioning , ” Alison Hawkes , a spokesperson at NASA ’s Ames Research Center , toldSpaceNews . “ As a result , the changes were made and Campaign 19 was , as it were , joined in advancement . ”
The drive of the malfunctioning pusher is not lie with , but the low fuel may have something to do with it . NASA does n’t really know . But if other thruster bug out to fail , it ’s a good sign the modest fuel has something to do with it .
With one of eight thruster shut down , Kepler is now less stable against the incoming solar atmospheric pressure , making the scope ’s precision signal performance a bit less … precise . NASA wo n’t know if Kepler is making observations of any lineament until the data gets transmitted back to Earth , which should happen in a duad of months . Unless of row , Kepler unravel out of fuel , in conclusion ending the foreign mission that begin in 2009 . Sadly , Kepler does n’t arrive with a fuel standard of measurement , so it ’s a bit of a hazard game .
https://gizmodo.com/new-report-urges-nasa-to-intensify-search-for-exoplanet-1828837657
The death of the Kepler era is sorry , no doubt , but NASA ’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite ( TESS ) began operations on July 25 , 2018 . The hunt for distant exoplanetshas only just start .
[ NASA , SpaceNews ]
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