NASA reveals plan that may save Kepler telescope

Ars Technica : The Kepler space telescope has been one of NASA’s primary tools for finding extrasolar planet candidates. However, after the failure of the second of its four reaction wheels , which keep the spacecraft carefully focused on its target, the telescope was no longer able to sustain position long enough to take clear pictures. A proposed solution is to re-create the effect of a third reaction wheel by using the impact of the Sun’s photons on Kepler‘s solar panels. If the spacecraft can be aligned so that the Sun’s light hits the panels evenly, the two remaining reaction wheels can balance against that force and hold the telescope steady. Because Kepler is orbiting the Sun, it will have to be repositioned four times each year to ensure that the Sun’s rays continue to strike the side of the telescope where the solar panels are located. As a result, Kepler will only be able to examine four distinct sections of the sky each year and its sensitivity will be reduced so that it won’t have the full range of detection capabilities it had previously.