NASA Kepler mission to answer age-old question

William Atkins
Friday, 06 March 2009 23:13

Science - Space

When Kepler does launch the following will happen. NASA states, “After the clock ticks down to liftoff, the Delta II's first-stage main engine and six strap-on solid rocket boosters will ignite. Three remaining boosters will ignite 65.5 seconds later, and the first-stage main engine will continue to burn for 4.5 minutes.”

Then, “The second stage will then ignite, carrying Kepler into a circular orbit 115 miles above Earth less than 10 minutes after launch. After coasting for 43 minutes, the second-stage engine will fire again, followed by second-stage shutdown and separation. The third stage will then burn for five minutes.”

Later, “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.”

During its 3.5-year mission Kepler will look at over 100,000 stars within the constellations Cygnus and Lyra.

NASA researcher William Borucki, science principal investigator for the mission, states, "We will monitor a wide range of stars; from small cool ones, where planets must circle closely to stay warm, to stars bigger and hotter than the sun, where planets must stay well clear to avoid being roasted. Everything about the mission is optimized to find Earth-size planets with the potential for life, to help us answer the question -- are Earths bountiful or is our planet unique?"

To watch the launch on your television, go to the NASA Television channel as provided by your TV carrier.

To see the launch on the Web, go to NASA TV. Coverage begins at 8:30 p.m. EST, with the first launch attempt scheduled beginning at 10:49 p.m.