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Solar Pressure May Help Kepler Return To Planet-Hunting Duties

Posted by samzenpus on from the back-to-the-search dept.

Zothecula writes "Last August, it looked as if NASA's Kepler space telescope was as good as scrap due to the failure of its attitude control system. Now the space agency proposes what it calls the K2 mission concept, which may fix the problem by using the Sun to regain attitude control and allow Kepler to resume its search for extrasolar planets."

5 of 46 comments (clear)

  1. forget the sun by bob_super · · Score: 3, Funny

    Solar pressure? The only thing that works for attitude control is peer pressure (for lack of a timeout corner in orbit).

    Tell Grandpa Hubble to shame Kepler into behaving.

  2. just gotta say... by BenSchuarmer · · Score: 3, Funny

    Don't make me get my asteroid belt!

    1. Re:just gotta say... by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 3, Funny

      Such mercurial joviality mars this saturnine thread. Something about venereal disease...

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  3. Re:Attitude Control? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh, no, they have an attitude all right. If you point them in the wrong direction they won't even talk to you. God forbid you give one a command it doesn't like or understand; you may never hear from it again. Fussy, high-maintenance, only responding to what it wants to hear; if that's not attitude I don't know what is...

  4. Re:Light Sail by MightyYar · · Score: 1, Funny

    the Sun is pretty stable when it comes to that

    Then how do you explain global warming?

    (I keed, I keed...)

    --
    W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.