Kepler Home Away from Home
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A Home Away from Home?
Faustson gets to contribute, in big and small ways, to a lot of interesting projects. Recently we were excited to help in the search for other planets in our galaxy that might support life.

Faustson has a long-standing relationship with Ball Aerospace. Earlier this month, Ball and NASA successfully launched their latest joint project: the Kepler telescope. We're very proud to have machined an important component of Kepler, a part known as the optical substrate. Kepler was launched from Kennedy Space Center on March 6 in a spectacular night liftoff.

Why Faustson?
Faustson has been fortunate to have a long and productive relationship with Ball Aerospace, the primary contractor on this project. According to Dennis Ebbets, an astronomer with Ball Aerospace and a spokesman for the project, "Ball likes working with local companies, and if we can find partners who can do the high-quality, high-precision work this type of project requires, we want to support our local friends and neighbors."

What's Kepler?
Kepler is an orbiting satellite observatory that, through a wide-angle telescope, takes a view of a particularly dense star field in the Milky Way galaxy. The device will look at approximately 100,000 stars and measure the amount of light they are emitting, recording data every 15 minutes for three and a half years.

Why? Until about 10 years ago, planets were assumed to be common across the galaxy and the universe, but they were difficult to find because they are small and dim. Then, astronomers developed creative ways to use telescopes and other instruments to detect the presence of planets. One technique is to focus on a distant star and detect the dimming of that star when a planet passes in front of it — a small, distant solar eclipse called a transit.

Kepler is a NASA "Discovery Mission" to find stars that have planets and are aligned in such a way that the planets orbiting them pass between the star and Earth. Kepler will use its large focal plane — a 96-megapixel optical detector — to measure the very small dimming of starlight that occurs when a planet passes in front of a star. Your digital camera might have five megapixels, but it takes 96 megapixels and a detector 14 inches square to detect the “blinks” — as small as one one-hundredth of a percent or 0.0001 percent — that scientists are looking for. Once the data has been gathered and processed, scientists will be able to pick out specific planets of interest and study them in more detail.

What did Faustson make for Kepler?
As you might imagine, each part for such a complicated project is critical. Faustson's role in this effort was to machine the substrate (or frame) that holds the optical detector. To be accurate, it is not just one big detector mounted to the substrate; it is a mosaic of 42 detectors, each about one inch by two inches. Constructing the detector this way allows Kepler to continue to function even if some of the 42 detectors fail for any reason.

The optical substrate, made of Invar stainless steel, had to be manufactured to exact specifications to hold the 42 detectors in a precise alignment that allows the kind of precision measurements that Kepler will take. In addition to acting as the structural mount for the detectors, the metal also will dissipate heat that could interfere with the performance or shorten the life of the detectors mounted to it.

What will Kepler do?
Kepler won't send back the kind of photographic images that people are used to seeing from the Hubble telescope. Instead, it will gather data on the brightness of the 100,000 stars it is observing, and scientists will analyze that data for signs of planets orbiting specific stars. They will also use the data to learn about the nature of the planets that reveal themselves by dimming the starlight that Kepler detects. Stars selected to observe in the star field are similar to our Sun in terms of size and temperature.

For example, the amount of dimming that is detected can help scientists assess how big a planet is in relation to the star. Planets will usually take from two to 14 hours to pass in front of a star, so that information reveals how fast a planet is moving around its star. The time it takes until it comes back across the star helps determine how far it is from the star and the size of its orbit. All this information together helps determine if the planet is likely to contain liquid water or is in the "habitable zone" for life as we know it — if, in fact, it might be earth-like.

The big picture and next steps
Ebbets notes that "what each of us does individually on a complex project like this might seem mundane. But when you step back and look at the big picture, you can see what the enterprise is all about — finding other planets, identifying which ones are similar to earth, which may contain water, even might support life. We’re answering the big questions about life, the universe and our place in it. That's where it really gets fun."

The Faustson team could not agree more. We held our breath, crossed our fingers and watched with the world on March 6 as Kepler lit up the night sky. The satellite settled into its orbit over the next couple of days and began undergoing approximately three weeks of commissioning. Once the instrument is turned on, the solar arrays will be oriented toward the sun to begin generating electricity to power the satellite, the temperature will be stabilized, and a series of internal checkouts will be conducted as systems and components are turned on.

"Faustson can take pride in this precision part," notes Ebbets. "Kepler will only work if it is properly focused, and for that to happen everything needs to be held in the right place. All the parts have to work right for the system as a whole to work correctly, and it had to be right when it was launched."

After about 21 days in orbit, the dust cover, like a giant lens cap for the detector, will be removed and Kepler will begin collecting data on the brightness of 100,000 stars. Over the next 3.5 years, the information that the instrument provides scientists at NASA will help find other planets and other earth-like planets that may support life in orbits around other distant suns. Faustson will be watching closely, as will much of the world, to see what exciting new discoveries this project reveals.

Whether you are building a satellite to send to orbit or have a more terrestrial machining need, we can help. To learn more, contact the professionals at Faustson at 303-420-7422 or visit www.faustson.com.

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Faustson Tool, Inc.
Phone: 303-420-7422
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