Kepler Mission Options

[SpaceListener]

I am trying to find out about the future position of Kepler with respect to Earth. So far I have found the following info which does not satisfy me since it does not tell me about how far will be Kelper following up to Earth with a constant distance?

Sixty-two minutes after launch, Kepler will have separated entirely from its rocket and will be in its final Earth-trailing orbit around the sun, an orbit similar to that of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

[remcook]

My impression was that it would move further and further away from Earth.
Google is very useful:
http://redorbit.com/images/gallery/kepler/...3/41/index.html

[HughFromAlice]

future position of Kepler with respect to Earth.

I went here http://kepler.nasa.gov/sci/design/orbit.html

NASA press kit is interesting - orbit info on page 14 http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/314125main_Kepler_...2-19_smfile.pdf

Kepler needs uninterrupted viewing to ensure most efficient use of observation time for planetary transits ("100,000 stars will be monitored continuously and simultaneously")!!!!! - therefore it is being put into a heliocentric orbit that trails behind the earth where earth/moon will not block the view. Also important - being further away from effects of things like earth/moon gravity, magnetoshpere etc means good stability and so better pics. Kepler's orbit will gradually fall further behind the Earth (worst case 0.5 AU after 4 years) but it will still be within communications range even after the end of the nominal mission - 3.5 years. Will probably get funding a bit longer after that.

Hope this helps.

[SpaceListener]

Thank you HughFromAlice. Its heliocentric orbit takes 371 days means that it will be keeping away from Earth in every year until it will meet again with Earth in very far future.

[ustrax]

Man...Jon Jenkins back at BTC contagiated me with is emotions...if I was intending to stay calm I can't avoid to become all emotional...

"I’ve been waiting for this moment for 14 years. Tonight, NASA Discovery Program’s Kepler Mission will blast off at 10:48 pm from Canaveral Air Force Station taking the hopes and dreams of myself and so many other people who’ve worked so hard for so long to make this moment happen. It feels like I’m on a roller coaster on its way up to the first big hill, ka-ching, ka-ching. I can just start to see the big drop just beyond the crest of the tracks, and at launch there will be no turning back and we’ll be taken along for one of the most thrilling rides of our lives. Yesterday I watched “Magnificent Desolation” at the IMAX theater at KSC Visitor Complex. Unbidden tears formed in my eyes and flowed down my cheeks towards the end of the film. The enormity of the goals and aspirations achieved by the Apollo Program are overwhelming."

[nprev]

Great, moving words. I think all of us are pretty excited, but I can only imagine how the team members feel right now.

GO KEPLER!!!!!

[Guest_Zvezdichko_*]

Looks like launch was successful.

[eoincampbell]

Brilliant launch Kepler, (I'm Ecstatic)
Go Find 'Em
Flea on the Headlight!

[Guest_PhilCo126_*]

Indeed, together with CoRoT a very interesting mission to look forward to...
BIS Spaceflight May 2009 will have an article on Kepler

[Stu]

Gorgeous launch pics by Ben Cooper...

http://www.launchphotography.com/Kepler.html

Second one is an absolute beauty, Ben, well done!

[FrankB]

I don't know about Corot... It seems it didn't gone so well with planets detections There is a new article here: http://www.cnes.fr/web/CNES-fr/7492-jour-de-chance.php
I tried to translate it with google and I am pretty disapointed:

To date, 7 CoRoT exoplanet discovered with certainty, including the smallest ever detected. This is an array of hunting already significant, but it is actually far less than what the researchers expected to discover. "We are half the planets as we had hoped" said Peter Barge. "We were so intrigued that we first thought there was a problem in detection methods. We distributed to all teams of the light curves with simulated transits to see if it was the methods of signal processing that were reviewed. But all the simulated planets had been identified ... " Another hypothesis, that of a noise, a disturbance signal which would be higher for low-light stars, often longer. "We will soon be able to better filter the residual instrumental noise on the low stars. We will see then if we find the planets expected. » " But if no new planet revealed the tip of the eclipse, it should be made to face the facts: the problem will not come from the instrument, but the stars themselves. "Maybe the planets are formed preferentially in our little galaxy" advance Pierre Barge with a smile. "Maybe the planets are formed preferentially in our little galaxy" advance Pierre Barge with a smile. The Sun and its retinue of planets and that a majority of the exoplanets detected are located in one arm of the galaxy, the Orion arm, a fairly dense area that could be more conducive to the formation of planets and other regions. But for now, this is still a hypothesis, "says the researcher.

[dmuller]

Does anybody know where I can find the spice kernels for Kepler? Since it's orbiting the Sun, I would want to include it on my site.

since it does not tell me about how far will be Kelper following up to Earth with a constant distance?

It will slowly fall behind Earth as it goes around the Sun ... Kepler orbits the Sun and not Earth. To keep it at a constant distance from Earth would involve at least two major trajectory correction maneuvers, so it is much more efficient to launch it into an orbit which is similar to that of Earth

[SpaceListener]

I am glad to know that the launch of Kepler was stunning and succesfull in spite of the fact that there were minor problems with some delay of relaying data to space center.

[BrianJ]

Congratulations on a succesful launch to everyone involved with the Kepler mission.

I have two questions which someone here may be able to enlighten me on:

1. Why wasn't an L2 orbit used (similar to the forthcoming Herschel and Planck missions)? Wouldn't an L2 orbit give a longer mission lifetime?

2. If/when an exo-planet is detected, is there any way to determine the eccentricity of it's orbit (either by Kepler or by ground based observations)?

Best regards,
Brian

[scalbers]

Yes, the radial velocity method can determine the eccentricity...