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Future Missions to Search for Earth-like Planets
posted: 30 June 2005
07:53 am
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Kepler mission  The Kepler mission has been proposed as an element in NASA's Discovery Program. Its goal would be to survey relatively nearby stars to detect and characterize hundreds of terrestrial and larger planets -- if they exist -- in or near the habitable zone.
The satellite's telescope would have a 0.95-meter (37-inch) aperture. It would orbit the Sun and study some 100,000 stars for four years. Kepler would study the size, orbit and composition of any Earth-like planets it found, and would also study the properties of stars that harbor planetary systems. The mission could get approval in December of this year, or possibly January 2001. No launch date has been projected. [See previous article about NASA's Discovery Mission approval process] Future Missions to Search for Earth-like Planets
COROT | Eddington | Kepler | Darwin | Terrestrial Planet Finder | SIM Related News
Search for Another Earth Quietly Underway
Discovery of Early Land Life Points to Stellar Possibilities Related Links
Kepler Mission Home Page
List of other planet-search missions | Uplink Your Views | | Will we find another Earth? How long will it take? Post your opinion |
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