Posted on Tuesday, November 26, 2013
In May 2013 second out of four reaction wheels of the Kepler spacecraft failed leaving it unable to collect necessary data. And as NASA reported in August that they gave up trying to fix the wheels, then it seemed like the last we would hear of Kepler except for it's data.
However on November 18th NASA reported a new mission proposal named K2.
While originally Kepler was aimed at a certain point in sky with it's field of view being in the constellations Cygnus and Lyra and mainly looking at stars like our Sun, then now the new mission would have it looking at cooler smaller stars which might also harbor rocky Earth-like planets.
Whether or not the plan will be accepted should be reported by the end of this year.
But how would it actually work when its two wheels that help keep it aiming precisely are broken?
Here's an info-graphic to explain:
Credits: NASA Ames / W. Stenzel
However on November 18th NASA reported a new mission proposal named K2.
While originally Kepler was aimed at a certain point in sky with it's field of view being in the constellations Cygnus and Lyra and mainly looking at stars like our Sun, then now the new mission would have it looking at cooler smaller stars which might also harbor rocky Earth-like planets.
Whether or not the plan will be accepted should be reported by the end of this year.
But how would it actually work when its two wheels that help keep it aiming precisely are broken?
Here's an info-graphic to explain:
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Credits: NASA Ames / W. Stenzel