Posted on Sunday, May 18, 2014
NASA's Kepler, that suffered an equipment breakdown last year has been granted a new mission - K2.
The new mission got funding for two years, enabling the Kepler team more time to search for exoplanets, this time a little differently from how they did it before.
Kepler will be looking at a star field in the plane of the ecliptic - this way solar radiation pressure can help stabilize the spacecraft and keep it steady.
It differs from the previous mission, that observed a star-field in the Milky Way, where the constellations Cygnus, Lyra and Draco are located. However since two of it's orientation-reaction wheels have broken down, it can't keep itself pointing in that direction steadily, thus the need for a new mission.
To read more about the K2 mission, visit Kepler Science Center website.
The new mission got funding for two years, enabling the Kepler team more time to search for exoplanets, this time a little differently from how they did it before.
Kepler will be looking at a star field in the plane of the ecliptic - this way solar radiation pressure can help stabilize the spacecraft and keep it steady.
It differs from the previous mission, that observed a star-field in the Milky Way, where the constellations Cygnus, Lyra and Draco are located. However since two of it's orientation-reaction wheels have broken down, it can't keep itself pointing in that direction steadily, thus the need for a new mission.
To read more about the K2 mission, visit Kepler Science Center website.
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| Artist's impression of the Kepler spacecraft. Credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech |