Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771
ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM
Monday, May 4, 2009 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium
Jim Fanson
"The Kepler Planet-Finding Mission"
ABSTRACT -- Kepler is NASA's first mission capable of discovering Earth-size planets orbiting in the habitable zones of other stars in the galaxy. The habitable zone is the region around a star where the temperature of an orbiting planet would support liquid water on the surface. Kepler will continuously monitor over 100,000 stars, waiting for them to "wink" when an orbiting planet crosses in front of them. If Earth-like planets are common Kepler will discover hundreds of them. Conversely, if Kepler detects none, then we'll know Earth-like planets are very rare and we may be alone in the galaxy. This talk will give an overview of the mission and the spacecraft.
SPEAKER -- Jim Fanson grew up in rural Wisconsin where dark nighttime skies inspired a lifelong interest in astronomy and space exploration. After earning his Ph.D. in engineering from Caltech he joined NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, specializing in space telescopes. He was a member of the team that fixed the Hubble Space Telescope's blurred vision in 1993. He later served as lead engineer for the design of the Spitzer Space Telescope and Project Manager for the Galaxy Evolution Explorer, two telescopes launched into space in 2003. He currently serves as Project Manager for the Kepler project.