Roger Hunter, the program director for NASA’s Kepler mission, visited Langley on Friday to give a talk about the mission. Following his talk, Hunter provided Langley students with a challenge: the first student to correctly answer both of the following questions will receive a NASA shirt or jacket. Students may use any source (teachers, parents, fellow students, Internet, etc.) to answer the questions. Answers may be emailed to [email protected].

1) Kepler is in a drift-away heliocentric orbit. (It does not have a propulsion system for thrusting. It has only attitude control thrusters for maintaining finepoint toward the Kepler target star field). In the Kepler drift-away orbit trajectory, Kepler periodically drifts back toward Earth, before continuing to drift further away in its heliocentric orbit. What is causing this cyclical drift-back toward earth? Explain.

2) Given Kepler’s orbit trajectory, state where Kepler will be in 49-50 years.

Bonus question: Where will Kepler be in 24-25 years? What is unusual about this location in 24-25 years?