NASA Mission - Research Paper Example

NASA MISSION The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is United d federal agency that oversees the nation’s civilian space. It is alsoresponsible for administrating on research on the space. This paper reviews one of the agency’s current missions, Kepler mission, and outlines the mission and its goal, and applicable instruments to the mission and how they work, and part of the subsystem that the instruments observe, application of collected data, and outlook of the mission. General outline of the Kepler mission The Kepler mission aims at exploring the Milky Way galaxy for discovery of other planets in the space that are equal to or smaller than the earth and orbits stars.

The mission also seeks to discover proportions of stars that may have such planets orbiting around them. This defines a descriptive study for understanding the characteristics of its members. Discovery of other planets that orbit stars has promoted the mission that focuses on planets in which existence of water and life is sustainable and narrows down to those planets whose sizes are either equivalent to or are less than the size of the earth. Ames Research Center manages the operations stage of the mission with its base in California.

The management observed a transition from Pasadena that was responsible for Kepler’s earlier stages. The mission’s management has also passed through NASA’s Marshal Space Flight Center. Goal of the Kepler mission Kepler’s mission overview identifies its goal of seeking to identify planets, with sizes equal to or less than the size of the earth, that orbit stars and have the potential to sustain life and existence of water and determining the proportion of such planets of the total number.

Instruments on board and how they work Kepler photometer is the mission’s instrument. It is a Schmidt telescope with a “o.95-meter aperture and a 105 square deg” (National Aeronautics and Space Administration 1). The instrument is directed towards a target and it records data from the target throughout the project’s lifetime. The photometer operates through its set of Charged Couple Devices. Forty-two devices make a Kepler photometer and the devices are homogeneous. Recorded information from the devices is collected after three seconds and a threshold level of brightness-captured stars are recorded.

Further, captured images from the instrument are defocused for better precision and data integrated for half an hour. Data from the devices are recorded simultaneously and successively throughout the mission period. The photometer works through the aid of a spacecraft that offers the “power, pointing, and telemetry” (National Aeronautics and Space Administration 1). The spacecraft improves stability in data caption through its pointing effect and simplifies the process. Launched on a spacecraft, the photometer rotates along an orbit and this allows it optimal access to the target subspace (National Aeronautics and Space Administration 1).

Part of the subsystem that they are looking at The instrument looks at subspaces around some types of stars. The stars of focus are those with planets orbiting around them and the planets have atmospheric pressure and water, in liquid state, on their surfaces. The subspace that the instrument observes is further defined by the mission’s objective that focuses on stars with R magnitudes of about 16. This means that some stars are automatically excluded from the instrument’s subspace of interest and even in cases where a star is within the subspace, planets that orbit it may not be part of the subspace (National Aeronautics and Space Administration 1).

How they use the collected data The collected data is used for identification and description of collected data. In identification purpose, the data is used to discover “Earth-size and smaller” planet through identification of each of the identified planet’s size and comparison of the data with the size of the earth. The data is also used to determine relative position of the planets with respect to the habitual zone. The data is further used in computations to establish the frequency of stars that have the target planets.

Obtained data that identifies the planets and their respective stars is used together with data on total number of stars to determine the proportion of stars that have the subject planets (National Aeronautics and Space Administration 1). Outlook of the mission The mission’s future remains based on probability as its high level of technology proves challenging. Abnormal behavior of used equipments such as RW4 and RW2 that span in two directions and high levels of friction have challenged the mission and unanticipated challenges may frustrate the project’s future prospects.

Challenges with spacecraft also cast doubt on the success of the Kepler mission data collection depends on the spacecraft that has malfunction and whose restoration has been terminated. Challenges with the spacecraft also threaten reliability of collected data that should be continues throughout the project period. These mean that the mission’s future faces challenges and unless corrective measures are implemented and preventive measures formulated, the mission may not achieve its objective (National Aeronautics and Space Administration 1).

Works cited National Aeronautics and Space Administration. “National Aeronautics and Space Administration.” N.d. Web. September 13, 2013. < http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/main/index.html#.UjMxB9IwccY>.