The spacecraft that’s located more planets than any other in history has endured technical failure serious enough to put its current mission of finding another so-called Super-Earth, in jeopardy, experts announced Wednesday.
NASA’s Kepler telescope is currently operating without its
stabilizing control wheel, which is necessary to point the device
in the right direction. This being the second wheel to be lost,
combined with Kepler’s location 40 million miles away from Earth,
indicates the search for another large celestial body could be
over.
Since Kepler was launched in 2009 it has found 132 confirmed
planets and 2,700 “candidate” planets that need to be
studied further, according to USA Today. Among the findings were
three “Super-Earth” planets that, because of the star
formation orbiting the bodies, could support life.
“Kepler’s not in a place where I can go up and fix it, or any
other astronaut,” John Grunsfield, the head of science at NASA
who previously traveled through space to repair the Hubble Space
Telescope, told the Washington Post. “We do need three reactions
wheels. I wouldn’t say Kepler is down and out just
yet.”
The telescope cost $600 million to build and operate but is now
without two of its four wheels, making it impossible for engineers
to control completely. Scientists still have two years’ worth of
data to examine, though, and the fourth, still unfound Super-Earth,
could simply be hiding in Kepler’s uninspected data.
“I don’t think I’d be a pessimist here,” said William
Borucki, Kepler’s lead scientist and chief proponent of the initial
project. “The mission has been phenomenally successful and I
really wouldn’t write it off at this point. It operated for four
years…I’m just elated with what we’ve accomplished.”
This article originally appeared on : RT