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Kepler mission

The Kepler Mission Is Out of Emergency Mode

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Testing and Re-checking of Kepler Spacecraft Commences

Kepler telescope
Artist’s concept of Kepler telescope.

Planet-hunters can breathe a sigh of relief: Kepler is back. Controllers for the telescope have taken it out of deep emergency mode and are now checking its data and testing its systems to understand why the spacecraft shut itself down last week. It was about to commence a new survey searching for microlensing events when it closed up shop. The telescope will eventually resume full operations, after a full check-out by controllers. (For more information, check out the NASA Kepler page.)

This kind of recovery, performed from millions and millions of kilometers away, is always both exciting and suspenseful. It’s exciting because the controllers can do it and figure things out from here on Earth. They know its systems quite well, and likely have contingency plans that spring into use when these things happen. It’s also suspenseful. That’s because they’re doing it from a distance. Until controllers actually get a response from a stricken spacecraft — whether it’s in a distant orbit or on another planet — there’s no way of knowing if the systems will recover. Once the data confirm attempts at recovery and repair, it’s breath-holding time. Luckily, this time controllers were able to deal with the problems. And, the mission goes on!

We’ve seen this sort of recovery with spacecraft many times. I watched in 1981 as controllers attempted to fix the Voyager 2 scan platform at Saturn. And, we’ve all seen as spacecraft at Mars have run into problems. Those are also among the “ultimate” diagnostic challenges for Earth-based controllers. The rovers on Mars ARE semi-autonomous, but if something goes wrong, a human has to step in and make some judgments about what to do next. That’s why humans will always be part of the equation when it comes to working with robotics in space exploration.

 

Kepler mission

Kepler Mission Goes into Safe Mode

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Astronomers Diagnose Kepler to Salvage Microlensing Project

Well this is a bummer. The Kepler spacecraft has gone into emergency mode, which puts it into minimal operations. That means, no science. The mission engineers have priority access on the Deep Space Network so they can communicate with the spacecraft. This lets them diagnose the problems that appeared to have started just before the spacecraft was to orient itself toward the center of the Milky Way to look for microlensing events.

Why Study Microlensing?

Kepler mission and microlensing
As an exoplanet passes in front of a more distant star, its gravity causes the trajectory of the starlight to bend, and in some cases results in a brief brightening of the background star as seen by a telescope. The artistic concept illustrates this effect. This phenomenon of gravitational microlensing enables scientists to search for exoplanets that are too distant and dark to detect any other way.
Credits: NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle

The Kepler mission was originally launched to search out planets, and in particular, Earth-like worlds, looking for changes in brightness of a star as worlds orbited around it. In its “second lifetime”, Kepler, on a mission called K2, is working on surveying stars to find more planets that lie in distant orbits from their stars. Previously, it found many worlds much closer to their stars.

In particular, the spacecraft’s sensors are being used to detect an effect called “microlensing”. That’s where astronomers look for flickers in light from distant stars that are caused by the influence of a star’s gravity. The gravitational effect warps the light, or ‘bends’ it as it passes by. This bending effect can make gravity act as a lens. It concentrates light from a distant object, just as a magnifying glass can focus the light from the Sun.

The warping effect of a massive object, such as a planet, on light that passes between a telescope and a distant background star helps reveal the planet. That’s what the spacecraft is looking for as part of its K2 mission.

This new survey is giving new life to the spacecraft. And, that’s why it’s so important to figure out why it has gone into safe mode and return it to normal operations. Stay tuned!