NASA Ends Attempts to Fix Kepler Spacecraft, Potential New Missions For the 'Star of Planet Hunting' Eyed

Attempts to fix the Kepler Space Telescope failed, prompting NASA to end their mission to fully recover the spacecraft that was considered as the star of NASA's exoplanet-hunting mission.

NASA confirmed the development in a news release, announcing that their efforts to restore the spacecraft were unsuccessful after two of its reaction wheels broke down.

One of the gyroscope-like reaction wheels of the spacecraft was lost in July last year. The spacecraft remained functional before losing another wheel in May.

These wheels are needed to precisely point the spacecraft toward a targeted star. NASA Engineers tried to determine whether the jammed wheels could be recovered to continue the mission, but the extent of the damage is too big to sustain the capability of the spacecraft over a long period of time.

"The wheels are sufficiently damaged that they cannot sustain spacecraft pointing control for any extended period of time," said Kepler deputy project manager Charles Sobeck in a conference call, Reuters reported.

Launched in 2009 to search for Earth-sized planets outside of our solar system, the Kepler space telescope confirmed a total of 135 exoplanets and has listed more than 3,500 candidates.

"At the beginning of our mission, no one knew if Earth-size planets were abundant in the galaxy. If they were rare, we might be alone. Now at the completion of Kepler observations, the data holds the answer to the question that inspired the mission: Are Earths in the habitable zone of stars like our sun common or rare?" said William Borucki, Kepler science principal investigator.

Although the spacecraft is no longer capable of discovering more exoplanets because of the lack precise-pointing ability, data previously collected by Kepler is still being analyzed, which could lead to more discoveries of potentially habitable planet.

"Kepler has made extraordinary discoveries in finding exoplanets including several super-Earths in the habitable zone. Knowing that Kepler has successfully collected all the data from its prime mission, I am confident that more amazing discoveries are on the horizon," said NASA Science Mission Directorate associate administrator.

NASA also announced that a team of engineers is currently looking for potential projects that could make the two-wheeled Kepler spacecraft very useful.

NASA, which is scheduled to hold a second Kepler Science Conference on Nov. 4 to 8, is confident that Kepler, with its two good reaction wheels and thrusters, will still be helpful in future projects.