NASA's Kepler: Planet-Hunting Spacecraft Faces Serious Health Problems

Health issues are jeopardizing the planet-hunting work of NASA's prolific Kepler space telescope, which has identified more than 2,700 potential alien worlds to date.

One of Kepler's reaction wheels positioning devices that maintain the observatory's position in space — remains balky despite mitigation attempts.

Roger Hunter

The mission team now regards the problem as unsolvable and is considering what the telescope can do after the wheel fails.

"While the wheel may still continue to operate for some time yet, the engineering team has now turned its attention to the development of contingency actions should the wheel fail sooner, rather than later," Kepler mission manager Roger Hunter, of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., wrote in an update Monday (April 29).