Kepler Mission Options

[imran]

This NASA Discovery mission is to be launched in June 2008 and will search for Earth-size and smaller planets. Launch was originally scheduled in 2007 but delayed by 8 months due to "funding constraints".

Here's the official web site:
http://www.kepler.arc.nasa.gov/

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

Did anyone found a weblink with the dimensions of the 1040 kilograms Kepler Space Observatory?

[ustrax]

Nope...I would say 5 to 6 meters tall...
Only found the info at the mission site, with the photometer dimensions it is just a question of doing the maths...
http://kepler.nasa.gov/sci/design/spacecraft.html

BTW, Beyond the Cradle, spacEurope's sucessor, is welcoming some members of the Kepler team, the last one was Alan Gould, here's a bit of it, revealing how this guys imagination is running wild...gotta love science... :

"We just finished 2 days of very exciting Kepler Science Team meetings here in Cocoa Beach FL (Mon-Tue, Mar 2-3), getting ready for Friday’s launch. We’re all extremely suspenseful, elated, and hopeful all at the same time. The science discussions were fascinating and intriguing–some about all the different types of transits we might observe with different classes of stars, different sizes of planets, shapes and periods of orbits, planets orbiting eclipsing binary stars, all stimulating thoughts of strange and wonderful new worlds."

If you scroll down you will also find a piece by Edna DeVore...everything that helps passing the time is welcome...