Is Kepler/K2 Mission coming to an End?

Kepler Space Observatory src:nasa

The Kepler mission is a space observatory aimed at finding Earth-like planets in our Milky Way galaxy. The Kepler spacecraft was launched on 7 March,2009. It was estimated to have a lifetime of about 3.5 years but the masters in engineering have made the spacecraft complete 9 successful years.

Johannes Kepler src:wiki
The Kepler mission was named after the astronomer Johannes Kepler. The Kepler has been a successful mission in the field of astronomy and has helped man achieve greater heights in the universe. The Kepler space observatory has helped discover various new planets in our own galaxy which lie in and near the habitable zone orbiting Sun-like stars. The space observatory has discovered about 2342 planets as of March, 2018 and is still searching for more.

The life of Kepler space observatory has rather been a tough one. The observatory worked well and good and to the expectations of the scientists till 2013, when one of its four reaction wheels broke. The reaction wheels were used for fixing the view of the observatory in a particular direction. But the observatory didn't let NASA down and kept on working with the remaining three wheels till May 2013 when a second reaction wheel also broke down, rendering the space observatory helpless. Every attempt of fixing the wheels went futile. The loss had brought an end to the mission of continuous surveillance of 150,000 stars of the galaxy. NASA invited ways for restarting the project and finally found a way to make use of the damaged observatory in its present state. The scientists shifted their focus from the Cygnus and Lyra constellations to other parts of the galaxy. For this they took help of the solar wind and the thrusters to fix the field of view in a particular direction for short interval of time(about 80 days) while revolving in its ecliptic heliocentric orbit. Hence a new mission, named K2 mission, was born which is operating successfully as of now.

But it seems like the K2 mission is approaching its end and will no longer be able to serve us any further. This is because of the shortage of the fuel left for the observatory to survive or basically for its thrusters and other machinery to work. The Kepler space observatory had been stocked with a hydrazine fuel of 12kg during its launch back in 2009. This was much more than that required by the observatory to work and explore the Milky Way for 3 years. Although the space observatory is equipped with solar panels but these panels are only capable of powering the electronics onboard and not the thrusters and engine. Plus the observatory is situated in such an orbit which is far from the Earth and cannot be refueled once exhausted. This further aggravated the situation and reduces any chances of further operation of the Kepler space observatory. Therefore, the space observatory is being shutdown frequently and restarted only for downloading the recorded data.

Image result for kepler spacecraft nasa
Field of View of Kepler Space Observatory src:nasa
The Kepler mission has been an extremely successful one and has outperformed its expectations on discovering new Earth-size planets even in its injured state. The Kepler observatory still continues to work in parts till the observatory is totally out of fuel and can serve no longer.

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