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Kepler Space Observatory

Kepler
Kepler in orbit
Artist's impression of the Kepler telescope
Mission type Space observatory
Operator NASA / LASP
COSPAR ID 2009-011A
SATCAT no. 34380
Website kepler.nasa.gov
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 (2009-03-07UTC03:49:57Z) 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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