NASAs planet-hunting deep space telescope is about to run out of fuel

The Kepler space telescope is running on empty, and there are no places to fill up when you’re 94 million miles from Earth.

Charlie Sobeck, an engineer for the Kepler mission, announced in an update that the end is near for the nine-year old deep space observatory. “At this rate, the hardy spacecraft may reach its finish line in a manner we will consider a wonderful success,” he wrote. “With nary a gas station to be found in deep space, the spacecraft is going to run out of fuel. We expect to reach that moment within several months.”

Kepler was launched on March 6, 2009, on what was originally envisioned as a three-and-a-half-year mission. The spacecraft was guided into a solar orbit, trailing the Earth as it circles the sun, on a quest to find Earth-sized planets orbiting distant stars.

The Kepler telescope can’t actually “see” those distant planets, of course. Rather, it looks for variations in light as a planet passes in front of its star, creating a tiny pulse. Repeated observations can detect the size and orbit of the planet.

Kepler has discovered hundreds of exoplanets over the past nine years. Its mission could have ended in 2013 when a reaction wheel on the spacecraft broke, making it unable to maintain its position relative to the Earth.


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