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Blastoff!
Blastoff!
Blastoff!

By: Dan Laget
Edition: 10 March 2009

Kepler was blasted into space by a Delta II rocket on Friday, March 6, 2009 at 10:49 EST from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

In a NASA press release, Kepler Project Manager James Fanson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. said "It was a stunning launch. Our team is thrilled to be a part of something so meaningful to the human race"

NASA made first contact with the craft on Saturday and confirmed that it is currently in a "trailing orbit" 950 miles behind Earth.

Engineers are in the process of "commissioning" Kepler which means turning on, calibrating and checking all systems to insure everything is functioning. NASA said this takes about 60 days. Kepler should start its planet-finding mission shortly thereafter.

Scientist expect to first find Jupiter sized planets; then Neptune sized and then the ultimate prize, Earth-sized planets. Jupiter is a giant gas planet incapable of sustaining life as we know it and will be the easiest to detect. Neptune is about four times the size of Earth at its diameter. The amount of light that sized planet displaces as it crosses the face of its sun should make it considerably easier to detect than the smaller planets.

The mission, however, is to detect Earth sized planets whose orbit is in the "habitable zone." The habitable zone is where a planet is neither too close nor too far from its sun for surface water to accumulate. If a planet is too close to its sun, water will evaporate because the planet is too hot to sustain an atmosphere to trap the water on the planet. If a planet is too far from its sun, water will constantly be frozen which decreases the probability of spawning a diversity of life.

For comparison, if Earth's orbit were the same as Mars' orbit is today, it is unlikely that Earth would have evolved in the same way it did, all other conditions being equal.

Kepler is powered by solar panels, and just as the Spitzer Space Telescope launched in 2005, will drift farther and farther away from Earth. Spitzer is now 62 million miles from Earth.

The Kepler mission is expected to take about three and a half years, depending upon what is found – it can be extended. If no Earth-like planets are found in a cluster of over 100,000 stars, all known astronomical science pertaining to planet formation will have to be revised. Few scientist believe that will happen.

The significance of this mission may turn out to be a routine scientific expedition where vast new databases will be built. On the other hand, Kepler may discover strange and fascinating new worlds.

You have to wonder: if Kepler finds a significant number of Earth-like planets in habitable zones will the next mission be an attempt to make contact with those worlds?

The Kepler mission might be the first step in that direction.

Blastoff!