Kepler Space Telescope forced to “take a nap”

Recently, the Kepler Space Telescope, one of NASA’s most important spacecrafts, has been forced to ‘take a nap’ due to lack of fuel.

Kepler launched in 2009 and has had a relatively short but highly valuable career with NASA. In its nine years of service, it has gazed upon over 150,000 stars, scouring the sky for planets that might contain life. 2,650 confirmed exoplanets have been discovered by Kepler, which account for just under 70% of the planets discovered so far.

In its nine years of service, it has gazed upon over 150,000 stars, scouring the sky for planets that might contain life

Earlier this month, engineers were notified that the space telescope’s fuel tank was running very low on fuel. They responded by putting the spacecraft into hibernation, as they prepare to try and download the outstanding scientific data it has collected. In order to send the data back home, the telescope will have to point its antenna back towards Earth and transmit it via the Deep Space Network (DSN). However, since the DSN has to transmit data from many other missions, time for this has to be allotted in advance.

This means Kepler won’t be woken up until August, when engineers will attempt to move the craft into the correct position. If successful, and if there is enough fuel left, Kepler will begin new observations – but with NASA predicting the spacecraft will run out of fuel imminently, it may not be able to continue.

Engineers were notified that the space telescope’s fuel tank was running very low on fuel

This isn’t the first time Kepler has run into problems. Initially, it was only scheduled for a three-and-a-half-year mission, but the data collected proved to be noisier than expected – so in order to fulfil the mission goals, additional time had to be allocated. Kepler has also lost two of its reaction wheels, amongst other issues, but has surprised NASA engineers with its ability to get around most of those issues. However, if it has an empty fuel tank, that will be the end. If there is not enough power to wake it up from its forced hibernation, Kepler will cease to operate forever.