Kepler: Nasa retires prolific telescope from planet-hunting duties
19 replies, posted
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/KOylnRq.jpg[/IMG]
[QUOTE]Nasa's observatory lost the second of its four reaction wheels in May, meaning it can no long hold completely steady as it looks towards the stars.Engineers have worked through a number of possible solutions but have failed to find one that will work.
Kepler has so far confirmed 135 planets beyond our Solar System. But it still has more than 3,500 "candidates" in its database that have yet to be fully investigated, and the vast majority of these are expected to be confirmed as planets in due course.
"We really expect the most exciting discoveries are going to come in the next few years as we search through all this data," said Bill Borucki, the Kepler mission principal investigator.
The $600m (£395m) observatory was launched in 2009 to try to find Earth-sized worlds orbiting their host stars in the so-called habitable zone. This is the distance from the star where, given the right atmospheric conditions, temperatures might allow water to persist on a rocky surface in a liquid state. In essence, Kepler has been attempting to find planets that have the best chance of supporting life.
"The wheels are sufficiently damaged that they cannot sustain spacecraft pointing and control for any extended period of time," confirmed Charles Sobeck, Kepler's deputy project manager.[/QUOTE]
[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23724344[/url]
Good night Sweet Prince.
Rest yourself, sweet machine, and dream of electric sheep.
It sucks when shit goes wrong in space. Nothing they can do, no repairs, no chance of reclamining it.
It just floats there, forgotten. :(
[QUOTE=Tomthetechy;41857649]It sucks when shit goes wrong in space. Nothing they can do, no repairs, no chance of reclamining it.
It just floats there, forgotten. :([/QUOTE]They say in the article that depending on budgetary constraints they could still use it for spotting objects closer by, like asteroids or comets.
[QUOTE=Tomthetechy;41857649]It sucks when shit goes wrong in space. Nothing they can do, no repairs, no chance of reclamining it.
It just floats there, forgotten. :([/QUOTE]
[img]http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/spirit.png[/img]
:c
[QUOTE=Tomthetechy;41857649]It sucks when shit goes wrong in space. Nothing they can do, no repairs, no chance of reclamining it.
It just floats there, forgotten. :([/QUOTE]
Well, they did repair Hubble in space due to its mirror being fucked. That's the only time I can think of
[QUOTE=smurfy;41858811]Well, they did repair Hubble in space due to its mirror being fucked. That's the only time I can think of[/QUOTE]
it would be cheaper to send up another telescope then to send astronauts to kepler
in fact i think sending astronauts to kepler would be absurdly fucking expensive as kepler isn't orbiting earth
[QUOTE=BrainDeath;41858833]it would be cheaper to send up another telescope then to send astronauts to kepler
in fact i think sending astronauts to kepler would be absurdly fucking expensive as kepler isn't orbiting earth[/QUOTE]
Could they send just a "copy" of kepler, because the developing part is done already, so they rebuild a fixed version of it it?
Or will they have to develop a new one?
[QUOTE=Fourm Shark;41860224]I hope one day we can travel space easily enough to reclaim these old satellites and rovers to put them in a museum.[/QUOTE]
[IMG]http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20050520073628/memoryalpha/en/images/4/48/Mars_Heritage_Site.jpg[/IMG]
[QUOTE=Tomthetechy;41857649]It sucks when shit goes wrong in space. Nothing they can do, no repairs, no chance of reclamining it.
It just floats there, forgotten. :([/QUOTE]
There's always the possibility that it will merge with an alien satellite, repair itself, develop sentience, and return to Earth thousands of years later named "K-pl-r".
[QUOTE=The golden;41860619]With all due respect
but does this really have to be posted in every single thread about a space craft?[/QUOTE]
Yes.
[QUOTE=Kyle v2;41860895]There's always the possibility that it will merge with an alien satellite, repair itself, develop sentience, and return to Earth thousands of years later named "K-pl-r".[/QUOTE]
All the while following a solar orbit. Yeah, that would be quite a feat :v:
[QUOTE=_Axel;41861478]All the while following a solar orbit. Yeah, that would be quite a feat :v:[/QUOTE]
V'ger (Star Trek) fell into a wormhole that let it out to another part of the galaxy.
Ergo it could be possible (assuming Star Trek logic)
[quote]As such, NASA is now considering other science missions, which could be anything from searching for asteroids to a technique called microlensing, which could show Jupiter-sized planets around other stars with the spacecraft’s more limited pointed ability. More information should be available in the fall on these points, once Kepler’s team reviews some white papers with science proposals.
Read more: [url]http://www.universetoday.com/104115/hobbled-kepler-space-telescope-now-on-the-hunt-for-a-new-mission/#ixzz2cCCl4VWM[/url]
[/quote]
but wait! it might just keep going on planet-hunting after all!
[editline]17th August 2013[/editline]
[QUOTE=BrainDeath;41858833]it would be cheaper to send up another telescope then to send astronauts to kepler
in fact i think sending astronauts to kepler would be absurdly fucking expensive as kepler isn't orbiting earth[/QUOTE]
its not possible because unlike hubble, kepler wasn't built to be serviced, its not even anywhere where we could reach it if we wanted to, so its just gone unless they figure out what to use it for next
[QUOTE=Kyle v2;41860895]There's always the possibility that it will merge with an alien satellite, repair itself, develop sentience, and return to Earth thousands of years later named "K-pl-r".[/QUOTE]
Wasn't there a Futurama episode with a plot something like this
[editline]17th August 2013[/editline]
except it was like a national censorship committee satellite that merged with a death star and was destroying everything it found to be "inappropriate"
Ouch, it's not even that old.
Well, at least we now have a reason to build a newer, and better one.
[QUOTE=Liem;41867270]Wasn't there a Futurama episode with a plot something like this
[editline]17th August 2013[/editline]
except it was like a national censorship committee satellite that merged with a death star and was destroying everything it found to be "inappropriate"[/QUOTE]
Yes and it was parodying the first Star Trek movie (I'm a nerd)
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.