Kepler in trouble?

[Ray McCarthy]

Nasa scrambles to save Kepler spacecraft from state of emergency

The spacecraft, which has detected nearly 5,000 planets outside our solar system, was found to be in its emergency mode sometime last week. Scientists last made regular contact with it on 4 April, when there were no signs of distress.

It's been a bit broken (the gyroscope wheels that point it) for ages and completed planned mission about four years ago, so while it will be sad if they can't revive it again, it's given great value.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

It's Back!
NASA gives blacked-out Kepler space 'scope the kiss of life

"Mission operations engineers have successfully recovered the Kepler spacecraft from Emergency Mode (EM)," said Charlie Sobeck, Kepler's mission manager at NASA's Ames Research Center.

"On Sunday morning, the spacecraft reached a stable state with the communication antenna pointed toward Earth, enabling telemetry and historical event data to be downloaded to the ground. The spacecraft is operating in its lowest fuel-burn mode."

 

[mosaix]

Thanks, Ray. Interesting stuff.

I'm always impressed with the amount of forethought that goes into the design of these things.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

NASA saves Kepler space 'scope by turning it off and on again