NASA's Kepler Spacecraft Bounces Back From Emergency Mode

NASA’s exoplanet-hunting Kepler Spacecraft slipped into a state of emergency on April 7, 2016. The spacecraft which is 75 million miles away from our planet has survived many glitches before and once again, NASA’s engineers were able to fix the problem to prevent further damage.

The emergency mode status is the minimum mode of operation that is triggered when the spacecraft is facing serious issues. According to NASA, the spacecraft remained in its “lowest operational mode which was said to be “fuel intensive.”

The glitch was however fixed as the Kepler team reported that the spacecraft had now bounced back from the emergency mode and was now operating in its “lowest fuel burning mode.” The team also embarked on a task to test the spacecraft’s system to determine what actually lead to the glitch and review its overall health.

Spacecraft with Nine Lives

Since its launch in March 2009 with a mission to hunt for exoplanets around other stars, the Kepler Spacecraft has survived several crises.

After accomplishing part of the mission, the spacecraft lost one of its gyroscopic reaction wheels in July 2012 and another in May 2013. This was a huge blow to the mission as both failures resulted to the spacecraft going into “safe mode.” NASA engineered came to its rescue after using the light of the sun as a force to push the spacecraft’s solar panels and then using the remaining wheels to push against the force and point its telescope once again.

The telescope was still able to gather more data as it still had its extensive field of view and ability to measure the brightness of thousands of stars with a powerful precision. NASA finally decided the primary mission was over and set to undertake a secondary mission known as K2.

Still Going Strong

The Kepler Spacecraft is still going strong on the mission to hunt for exoplanets in its current K2 mission, although on a limited basis. Since its launch, it has discovered nearly 5000 exoplanets outside our solar system. Last year, it discovered Earth’s “closest twin” just outside the solar system. According to NASA scientists, this planet could be potentially habitable.

Despite the repeated glitches, the spacecraft has provided a wealth of information on the formation of stars, supernovas, asteroids, and comets. It’s a huge leap towards the study of exoplanets and other planetary systems. The spacecraft is named after Johannes Kepler, a famous German astronomer who played a critical role in the revolution of science.

The Kepler Spacecraft is currently nearly 75 million miles away from planet Earth. It takes around 13 minutes for a signal to travel to the craft and back, even at the speed of light.

In case of a future breakdown, the huge distance between the craft and Earth will now make it more difficult to fix. The spacecraft is otherwise operating normally, although a team of engineers continues to assess its health to prevent future breakdowns.