Kepler Space Observatory
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Artist's impression of the Kepler telescope
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| Mission type | Space observatory |
|---|---|
| Operator | NASA / LASP |
| COSPAR ID | 2009-011A |
| SATCAT no. | 34380 |
| Website | kepler |
| Mission duration | Planned: 3.5 years Elapsed: 7 years, 11 months and 18 days |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Manufacturer | Ball Aerospace & Technologies |
| Launch mass | 1,052.4 kg (2,320 lb) |
| Dry mass | 1,040.7 kg (2,294 lb) |
| Payload mass | 478 kg (1,054 lb) |
| Dimensions | 4.7 m × 2.7 m (15.4 ft × 8.9 ft) |
| Power | 1100 watts |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | March 7, 2009, 03:49:57 UTC |
| Rocket | Delta II (7925-10L) |
| Launch site | Cape Canaveral SLC-17B |
| Contractor | United Launch Alliance |
| Entered service | May 12, 2009, 09:01 UTC |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Heliocentric |
| Regime | Earth-trailing |
| Semi-major axis | 1.0132 AU |
| Eccentricity | 0.036091 |
| Perihelion | 0.97667 AU |
| Apohelion | 1.0498 AU |
| Inclination | 0.44745 degrees |
| Period | 372.53 days |
| Argument of perihelion | 2.9411 degrees |
| Mean anomaly | 41.177 degrees |
| Mean motion | 0.96635 deg/day |
| Epoch | March 13, 2015 (J2000: 2457094.5) |
| Main telescope | |
| Type | Schmidt |
| Diameter | 0.95 m (3.1 ft) |
| Collecting area | 0.708 m2 (7.62 sq ft) |
| Wavelengths | 430–890 nm |
| Transponders | |
| Bandwidth |
X band up: 7.8 bit/s – 2 bit/s X band down: 10 bit/s – 16 kbit/s Ka band down: Up to 4.3 Mbit/s |
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Kepler is a space observatory launched by NASA to discover Earth-size planets orbiting other stars. Named after astronomer Johannes Kepler, the spacecraft was launched on March 7, 2009, into an Earth-trailing heliocentric orbit.
Designed to survey a portion of our region of the Milky Way to discover Earth-size exoplanets in or near habitable zones and estimate how many of the billions of stars in the Milky Way have such planets,Kepler's sole scientific instrument is a photometer that continually monitors the brightness of over 145,000 main sequence stars in a fixed field of view. These data are transmitted to Earth, then analyzed to detect periodic dimming caused by exoplanets that cross in front of their host star.
Kepler is part of NASA's Discovery Program of relatively low-cost, focused primary science missions. The telescope's construction and initial operation were managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, with Ball Aerospace responsible for developing the Kepler flight system. The Ames Research Center is responsible for the ground system development, mission operations since December 2009, and scientific data analysis. The initial planned lifetime was 3.5 years, but greater-than-expected noise in the data, from both the stars and the spacecraft, meant additional time was needed to fulfill all mission goals. Initially, in 2012, the mission was expected to be extended until 2016, but on July 14, 2012, one of the spacecraft's four reaction wheels used for pointing the spacecraft stopped turning, and completing the mission would only be possible if all other reaction wheels remained reliable. Then, on May 11, 2013, a second reaction wheel failed, disabling the collection of science data and threatening the continuation of the mission.
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