NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler telescope disabled

Los Angeles Times ^ | May 15, 2013, 10:13 p.m. | Amina Khan

[Olog-hai]

Planet-hunting scientists were dealt a major blow Wednesday when NASA officials announced that a crucial wheel on the Kepler space telescope had ceased to function and that the craft had been placed in safe mode.

Even as NASA officials raised the possibility that they could get the telescope back up and running, scientists began mourning the potential loss of a spacecraft that they said had fundamentally altered our understanding of alien planets in the Milky Way—and Earth’s place in an increasingly crowded galaxy.

“Tears are coming to my eyes on and off,” said UC Berkeley astrophysicist Geoff Marcy, a co-investigator on the Kepler mission. “I really think this telescope was a gift to our civilization.”

With more than 2,700 candidate planets identified and 132 confirmed since its 2009 launch, the Kepler telescope revolutionized scientists’ appreciation of the number and variety of so-called exoplanets, the bodies that orbit other stars, Marcy said. Its initial 3.5-year mission was extended last year through 2016. …

[Olog-hai]

Great. Maybe pull all the bucks out of the Muslim outreach and back towards this?

[bgill]

HOWARD!!! Did you break NASA’s telescope?

[RadiationRomeo]

This is just the first of many telescopes that will be ‘disabled’ to allow the alien invasion force to approach Earth unobserved!

[BenLurkin]

“Tears are coming to my eyes on and off,” said UC Berkeley astrophysicist Geoff Marcy...

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Olog-hai.

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[SunkenCiv]

An extra ping to APoD members.

[hattend]

“Tears are coming to my eyes on and off,” said UC Berkeley astrophysicist Geoff Marcy,

Man up, Geoff...

Oh wait, it's Berzerkly.

[null and void]

Wheel?

Doesn’t Kepler have a spare tire?

[McGruff]

Kepler is powered by four solar panels, and the spacecraft must execute a 90-degree roll every 3 months to reposition them toward the sun while keeping its eye precisely aimed. Kepler launched with four wheels to control that motion — and one of them failed last year.

Yesterday, a second wheel appears to have failed as well, and the space telescope was placed in “thruster-controlled safe mode” yesterday, said NASA spokesman J.D. Harrington.

“Unfortunately, Kepler isn’t in a place where I can go up and rescue it,” John Grunsfeld, associate administrator, science mission directorate at NASA said during a hastily arranged press conference Wednesday afternoon.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/05/15/faulty-steering-wheel-jeopardizes-kepler-space-telescope-quest-for-alien-life/#ixzz2TgV3SMLf

[cripplecreek]

Not my fault. I was here all day.

[editor-surveyor]

Who f’n cares?

Planet searching has zero practical value, and a high cost

[editor-surveyor]

>> “This is just the first of many telescopes that will be ‘disabled’ to allow the alien invasion force to approach Earth unobserved!” <<

.
Read my tagline.

[RadiationRomeo]

I hope you realized I was joking. Holy cow....
Read your tagline.

[Moonman62]

I care. I don’t think God wants us to be ignorant.

[Moonman62]

This is not a great tragedy. Kepler completed its primary mission already.

Build and launch a better replacement.

[rarestia]

For God’s sake mom I wasn’t even at work this weekend!

[null and void]

Some people’s faith in God would be shattered if it were proved that the Earth isn’t center of all Creation.

[bgill]

Was it your little friends? You’re grounded!

[rarestia]

But mom! I’m an adult for God’s sake!

[editor-surveyor]

Ignorant of what?

There isn't a single planet outside of Earth that will ever be a home to men. Fantasizing about other planets is not the product of a rational functioning mind.