The Kepler spacecraft has been brought back from the dead

[Ichingcarpenter]

Last week, things were looking pretty bleak for the planet-hunting Kepler Space Telescope when it unexpectedly went into 'emergency mode' (EM) just before its latest campaign was due to start. NASA scientists promptly declared a 'state of emergency' and diverted all ground communications towards rescuing the mission.

But the Kepler team has just made everyone's week by announcing that they've managed to recover the spacecraft from EM and get it back online again - and will hopefully have it back in 'science mode' soon.

NASA scientists still aren't quite sure what happened - they're waiting for Kepler's data from the past couple of weeks to be downloaded before they can piece together what went wrong - but in the meantime, everyone's feeling pretty relieved about the telescope's fate.

"On Sunday morning, the spacecraft reached a stable state with the communication antenna pointed toward Earth, enabling telemetry and historical event data to be downloaded to the ground," wrote mission manager Charlie Sobeck.

http://www.sciencealert.com/the-kepler-spacecraft-has-been-brought-back-from-the-dead

[longship]

1. Hooray! Good work, Kepler team!

R&K

[Wilms]

2. So it's a zombie now?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. In religious term, it is Jesus Christ after

Easter, that well known christianist holiday:

Easter is a pagan festival. If Easter isn't really about Jesus, then what is it about? Today, we see a secular culture celebrating the spring equinox, whilst religious culture celebrates the resurrection. However, early Christianity made a pragmatic acceptance of ancient pagan practises, most of which we enjoy today at Easter. The general symbolic story of the death of the son (sun) on a cross (the constellation of the Southern Cross) and his rebirth, overcoming the powers of darkness, was a well worn story in the ancient world. There were plenty of parallel, rival resurrected saviours too.

The Sumerian goddess Inanna, or Ishtar, was hung naked on a stake, and was subsequently resurrected and ascended from the underworld. One of the oldest resurrection myths is Egyptian Horus. Born on 25 December, Horus and his damaged eye became symbols of life and rebirth. Mithras was born on what we now call Christmas day, and his followers celebrated the spring equinox. Even as late as the 4th century AD, the sol invictus, associated with Mithras, was the last great pagan cult the church had to overcome. Dionysus was a divine child, resurrected by his grandmother. Dionysus also brought his mum, Semele, back to life.

[navarth]

5. Good history lesson there. Knowledge is Power.

[eppur_se_muova]

8. Are you saying Zombie Jesus is real ??

First he came for your soul ... now he wants your brain.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

10. ever see Sir Monty the Python and the Brains skit?

[eppur_se_muova]

11. I guess not, is that from the original MPFC players, or someone else ?

Is this the Mr. Gumby sketch ??

[ChairmanAgnostic]

12. "Doctor! . . . Doctor! . . . Doctor!"

The doctor appears.

John Cleese, wearing a nappie on his head continues yelling, staring right at the doctor.

"Doctor! . . . Doctor! . . . Doctor!"


"Yes, what is it?"

"My Brain hurts!"


it is a classic.

[eppur_se_muova]

15. "It will have to come out !" nt

[tomm2thumbs]

3. yay - good news

[navarth]

6. Wonderful! Yay for science! Yay for NASA!!

[Nitram]

7. Sounds like they built a tough little space craft.

Some good engineering and programming.

[eppur_se_muova]

9. Interesting note -- the computer is basically a PowerPC 750 (aka G3 to Mac users).

Radiation-hardened (rather extremely!), of course.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAD750

[awoke_in_2003]

14. It is a proven platform

which they have worked most of the bugs out of it. The problem with cutting edge is you sometimes get cut

[mopinko]

16. yeah, they dont call it the bleeding edge for nothing.

ask me about the new mac os. smh.

[awoke_in_2003]

17. I have never had a problem with OSX updates...

but I seem to have gotten one of the infamous grey screens of death iMacs. The ones they produced right before they came out with the ultra thin iMacs have a heat problem- causing the logic board (I think) to get to hot, causing the screen to go grey. I am going to have to take it in. Oh well, I paid $65 for it- that was for postage and insurance. I switched to Apple when they made the first flat screen iMac (with the hemispherical base). That was the first and last Mac I paid for. My dad has used them since 84, and buys a new one every two years. He then sends me his "old" one. This is the first time I have ever had a hardware problem.

[PJMcK]

19. Agree about OSX updates

They never seem to give any of my Macs the problems I've read about.

Your dad sounds like me! I used to give my slightly older machines to my son until he insisted on buying his own, top-of-the line laptop.

Slightly off-topic, but some years ago I had a PowerBook 3400c which was a wonderful- if heavy- machine. One night at work, a cleaning lady bumped my desk knocking over a cup of coffee which splashed onto the laptop. The poor computer actually screamed as it died! Thankfully, NYC's TekServe did a fantastic job of resuscitating it.

[awoke_in_2003]

13. Fantastic news

It is good to know that NASA still attracts some of the best minds.

[hrc guy]

18. Hear Hear!