Kepler Space Telescope, NASA's promising alien hunter has suffered another unexpected malfunction, and it is now in its no fuel use sleep mode. In a statement, published on October 23 NASA has confirmed the malfunction of the Kepler telescope.
"Following a successful return of data from the last observation campaign, the Kepler team commanded the spacecraft into position to begin collecting data for its next campaign. On Friday, October 19, during a regularly scheduled spacecraft contact using NASA's Deep Space Network, the team learned that the spacecraft had transitioned to its no-fuel-use sleep mode. The Kepler team is currently assessing the cause and evaluating possible next steps," wrote NASA.
It should be noted that the Kepler Telescope had downloaded campaign 19 data back to the earth on October 15.
As Kepler telescope successfully downloaded campaign 19 data back to the earth, NASA revealed that the status of the alien hunter is being completely analyzed since the space agency woke it up on October 11.
Earlier, on August, following an unusual behavior of a thruster, NASA revealed that there are several uncertainties surrounding the amount of fuel in the telescope. Even though Kepler has faced several setbacks and sufferings during its deep space alien hunting, this telescope has been a success for NASA, as it helped the space agency to confirm more than 2650 planets.
While launching Kepler telescope on March 07, 2009, NASA estimated that it could be operational for only one year in space. However, it successfully operated for nine years, and in this glorious career, Kepler made some milestone achievements including the discovery of Wolf 503b, an exoplanet which is twice the size of the earth.
On April 18, 2018, NASA launched the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) which will replace Kepler in upcoming alien hunting missions. In last September, TESS spotted HD 39091, an alien planet located 59.5 light years from the earth.
