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NASA’s Kepler space telescope is running out of fuel
Posted on 3/22/18 at 1:22 pm
Posted on 3/22/18 at 1:22 pm
LINK
Without a fuel gauge, Kepler’s demise is simply estimation, and it hasn’t shown signs of slowing down just yet. NASA is continually monitoring the craft for signs of low fuel, like changes in thruster performance and fuel tank pressure, but no warnings have arisen so far. Kepler will continue to carry out research campaigns and send scientific data back to Earth until its thrusters, which are needed to aim the spacecraft and transmit data, begin to show signs of fuel depletion.
Spacecraft typically have to reserve fuel for a final finish, like Cassini’s final descent into Saturn’s atmosphere, so they don’t collide with other satellites, contaminate extraterrestrial environments, or come crashing down to Earth. Kepler, however, is in an isolated area 94 million miles (151 million kilometers) from Earth, so its last bit of fuel can be used to continue observing and collecting data.
Wiki link on the telescope
Designed to survey a portion of our region of the Milky Way to discover Earth-size exoplanets in or near habitable zones and estimate how many of the billions of stars in the Milky Way have such planets,[5][9][10] Kepler's sole scientific instrument is a photometer that continually monitors the brightness of approx 150,000 main sequence stars in a fixed field of view.[11] These data are transmitted to Earth, then analyzed to detect periodic dimming caused by exoplanets that cross in front of their host star.
List of exoplanets confirmed using Kepler
Without a fuel gauge, Kepler’s demise is simply estimation, and it hasn’t shown signs of slowing down just yet. NASA is continually monitoring the craft for signs of low fuel, like changes in thruster performance and fuel tank pressure, but no warnings have arisen so far. Kepler will continue to carry out research campaigns and send scientific data back to Earth until its thrusters, which are needed to aim the spacecraft and transmit data, begin to show signs of fuel depletion.
Spacecraft typically have to reserve fuel for a final finish, like Cassini’s final descent into Saturn’s atmosphere, so they don’t collide with other satellites, contaminate extraterrestrial environments, or come crashing down to Earth. Kepler, however, is in an isolated area 94 million miles (151 million kilometers) from Earth, so its last bit of fuel can be used to continue observing and collecting data.
Wiki link on the telescope
Designed to survey a portion of our region of the Milky Way to discover Earth-size exoplanets in or near habitable zones and estimate how many of the billions of stars in the Milky Way have such planets,[5][9][10] Kepler's sole scientific instrument is a photometer that continually monitors the brightness of approx 150,000 main sequence stars in a fixed field of view.[11] These data are transmitted to Earth, then analyzed to detect periodic dimming caused by exoplanets that cross in front of their host star.
List of exoplanets confirmed using Kepler
Posted on 3/22/18 at 1:24 pm to DavidTheGnome
this thing isn't solar powered?
Posted on 3/22/18 at 1:25 pm to Brosef Stalin
Solar wouldn’t power the jets used to orient it
Posted on 3/22/18 at 1:25 pm to DavidTheGnome
Shouldn’t NASA be able to pretty accurately guess how much fuel has been burned? Or is this thing just kind of doing whatever it wants?
Posted on 3/22/18 at 1:27 pm to Brosef Stalin
It was only supposed to be in orbit a few years then some issues arose and NASA altered the mission statement. Now it’s more of a “stick it out there and see how much we can find” type of mission.
Posted on 3/22/18 at 1:28 pm to DavidTheGnome
quote:
In December 1595, Kepler was introduced to Barbara Müller, a 23-year-old widow (twice over)
quote:
In the first years of their marriage, the Keplers had two children (Heinrich and Susanna), both of whom died in infancy
quote:
Barbara Kepler contracted Hungarian spotted fever, then began having seizures. As Barbara was recovering, Kepler's three children all fell sick with smallpox; Friedrich, 6, died
quote:
However, Barbara relapsed into illness and died shortly after Kepler's return.[53]
Rough times to be alive.
Posted on 3/22/18 at 1:32 pm to The Pirate King
quote:
Shouldn’t NASA be able to pretty accurately guess how much fuel has been burned? Or is this thing just kind of doing whatever it wants?
You'd be shocked how much these probes vary from how much power they consume. The Voyager probes are still active, and no one thought they'd last past the 80s.
Posted on 3/22/18 at 1:43 pm to OMLandshark
The voyagers are marvels of engineering
Posted on 3/22/18 at 1:45 pm to DavidTheGnome
General Hux has the Kepler space telescope tied to the end of a string
Posted on 3/22/18 at 1:47 pm to DavidTheGnome
Don’t worry, she has a plan
Posted on 3/22/18 at 1:55 pm to DavidTheGnome
All hail V'Ger! We await your inevitable return!
Posted on 3/22/18 at 8:07 pm to The Pirate King
quote:
Shouldn’t NASA be able to pretty accurately guess how much fuel has been burned?
Found this regarding NASA link
Why is measuring fuel supply in space so difficult?
On the ground, measuring fuel supply in a vehicle is easier, but it’s still difficult to be accurate. Gravity keeps all the fuel at the bottom of the tank and a float sensor can measure how high the tank is filled. But as the fuel level drops, uncertainties in the fuel height, amount of fuel in the lines between the tank and the engine, and how completely the tank will drain, means predicting when an engine will stop running is inherently uncertain.
In space, the problem is exacerbated. Without gravity, the fuel doesn’t “drain out the bottom,” and a simple float doesn’t work. Kepler’s fuel system uses a common approach in which the fuel tank includes an internal air bladder that is pressurized before launch to “push” the fuel into the lines. As the fuel is consumed, the bladder expands to take up more space and keep the fuel under pressure. The pressure is monitored and is used as an indicator of how much fuel remains as the expansion of the bladder results in a predictable drop in pressure. But as that remaining fuel drops and the expansion of the bladder is impeded by the walls of the tank, that predictability begins to degrade.
Another approach is to monitor the duration of each thruster firing — how long the fuel is allowed to flow through the engine with each use — and compare the accumulated time with an estimate of the total time it would take to empty the tank. The Kepler team uses this approach as well, measuring the firing times of each thruster when they are used. But this approach also has limitations. An automobile engine doesn’t use the same amount of fuel for each revolution — for example, you use more fuel when accelerating than you do coasting, even if the engine is turning at the same speed — and a spacecraft thruster’s performance also changes depending on how it’s used.
There are even more difficult ways to estimate fuel usage by analyzing how the spacecraft’s momentum has changed over its lifetime. Accounting for all the environmental disturbances, the unexplained leftover momentum must have been accounted for by fuel usage, and that usage can be estimated.
All these approaches are used, and the team generates a consensus estimate of the remaining fuel, along with the uncertainty. In the end, what we end up with is this estimate, not a precise knowledge.
Posted on 3/22/18 at 8:20 pm to DavidTheGnome
All they really have to do is hook a chain to the Tesla and tow it home. Not all that complicated.
Posted on 3/22/18 at 8:24 pm to DavidTheGnome
quote:
DavidTheGnome
Your threads suck
Posted on 3/22/18 at 8:27 pm to starsandstripes
Don’t post in them then
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