Deputy project manager Charles Sobeck says the decision was the right one.
“The results of that show what we expected to see, which is that the wheels are sufficiently damaged that they cannot sustain spacecraft pointing control for any extended period of time.”
The Kepler team is now looking into whether the space telescope could be used in a different kind of project. This could include an exoplanet search -- that is, a search for a planet that turns around a star other than the sun. William Borucki says NASA has called on the science community for ideas.
“They are not proposals. They are not asking for funds. They are suggesting ideas and we look at which of these could we do for a reasonable cost?”
He says Kepler’s scientific mission has yet to end. The team is now working on information collected by the spaceship over the past four years. He expects the search will produce hundreds, if not thousands, of new discoveries.
“And so basically, in the next few years, when we complete this analysis, we will be able to answer the question that inspired the Kepler mission: Are Earths common or rare in our galaxy?”
William Borucki says Kepler’s work is an important first step in the exploration of our galaxy. NASA is preparing for another mission in 2017. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite will look for larger and brighter planets closer to our solar system than Kepler did. It will put its observational instruments on an area 3,000 light years away.
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25