First (exo)Planet-Hunting Satellite To Launch In 2017! AND MORE!

I guess NASA isn't quite dead yet! This is, in my opinion, an exciting and inspirational space-exploration project comparable to the first Cosmonaut in space, the Moon landing, and the Mars Rover(s).

...the result of four proposals submitted in 2012. The most anticipated and high profile mission is TESS, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite.

Unlike Kepler, which stares continuously at a single segment of the sky along the galactic plane in the direction of the constellations Cygnus, Hercules, and Lyra, TESS will be the first dedicated all-sky exoplanet hunting satellite.

The mission will be a partnership of the Space Telescope Science Institute, the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, the NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center, Orbital Sciences Corporation, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research (MKI).

“TESS will carry out the first space-borne all-sky transit survey, covering 400 times as much sky as any previous mission. It will identify thousands of new planets in the solar neighborhood, with a special focus on planets comparable in size to the Earth,” said George Riker, a senior researcher from MKI.

TESS will also serve as a logical progression from Kepler to later proposed exoplanet search platforms.

Also on the board for launch in 2017 is NICER, the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer

NICER will employ an array 56 telescopes which will collect and study X-rays from neutron stars

Another fascinating project working in tandem with NICER is SEXTANT, the Station Explorer for X-ray Timing And Navigation Technology.

Both NICER and TESS follow the long legacy of NASA’s Astrophysics Explorer Program, which can be traced all the way back to the launch Explorer 1. This was the very first U.S. satellite launched in 1958.

On a final note..

Perhaps human explorers will indeed one day visit the worlds discovered by TESS… and use navigation techniques pioneered by SEXTANT to do it!

Enjoy.

Universe Today Link
Popsci Link

I guess no one is excited about discovering new planets.

well they have over 1800 at this point .Now finding earth sized planets would be good but untill we find a way to dectect if theres life on these planets all we are doing is taking count .
I say we should for once and finly send a probe to mars to look for LIFE .
the real conspirecy ((yea its spelled wrong) is why do we send probe after probe and none have equmint for accutly dectectin life none but the first that is. What did they find the first time that keeps them from sending a probe to prove once and for all if theres life on mars.

reply to post by midnightstar


Well, many of our probes are able to capture HD images.. Many of which are not limited to the visible spectrum. What exactly do you suggest we use to detect life more efficiently?

reply to post by HairlessApe

Thank you for your well put together thread. Threads like this are what bring me to ATS, I haven't heard of this mission before. I am proud to say I attended the news conference which announced the first solar system discovery outside of our own (in the mid-'90s sometime) and it's nice to see that so many have joined it in the next 15 years. Your post makes me wonder how many more will emerge in the next 15 years.

reply to post by Aleister


And thank you for the delightful comment, although most of the credit goes to the people who actually researched these things. I'm just grabbing links and posting the interesting bits on ATS. I've been kind of disappointed by the quality of threads on ATS lately as well. I've got a few more science + tech related threads which I started today, if you care to take a look.

Russia Investing $50 billion into space program
New Drone is Full-Sized Chopper
New Human Ancestor Discovered, Between Human and Chimp

reply to post by HairlessApe

I just got back from your Russian-money-for-space thread not knowing it was yours until I got there, and had planned to look at the chimp/human thread soon. Nice work. I'm going to have to check your past threads now, too much play and no work (yay!).

So as a staging point for telescopes and other search missions, the ISS might finally earn it's accolades. I was never impressed with the ISS, and saw few reasons for it, but maybe now its true value can begin to emerge.

dont have a clue what we could use to dectect like on world in other systems heck we cant even do it on mars yet . lol

Originally posted by Aleister
reply to post by HairlessApe

 

I just got back from your Russian-money-for-space thread not knowing it was yours until I got there, and had planned to look at the chimp/human thread soon. Nice work. I'm going to have to check your past threads now, too much play and no work (yay!).

So as a staging point for telescopes and other search missions, the ISS might finally earn it's accolades. I was never impressed with the ISS, and saw few reasons for it, but maybe now its true value can begin to emerge.

Hah. Sorry, but I'll probably disappoint you on past threads. They were mainly just jokes. I only decided to start making my own threads yesterday. I'll be posting at least weekly though.

Originally posted by midnightstar
dont have a clue what we could use to dectect like on world in other systems heck we cant even do it on mars yet . lol

As much as I want there to be life on Mars, or for there to have been life on Mars at one point, it may yet disappoint us. We may eventually explore the seas of Titan and Europa though. And if there are truly enormous seas beneath the surface ice of those moons, who knows what we'll find? Perhaps something more than just bacteria.

Excellent news---I await this new satellites findings like a child awaits Christmas. From burning Giordano Bruno at the stake for religious heresy to launching satellites to find other Earths out in the Universe; Humanity has come a long way.

I am not trying to be negative or nothing like that, but discovering other planets and sending materials into space without it ever coming back, in my opinion, is as much a waste of money as is the military. They wont bring back cures, food, water, or feed and cloth this "world in poverty".

But i do like space and all it's wonders, but it can all be observed from here... there is no need to spend so much money on it, just an excuse to make the wealthy even wealthier.

Originally posted by XaniMatriX
I am not trying to be negative or nothing like that, but discovering other planets and sending materials into space without it ever coming back, in my opinion, is as much a waste of money as is the military. They wont bring back cures, food, water, or feed and cloth this "world in poverty".

But i do like space and all it's wonders, but it can all be observed from here... there is no need to spend so much money on it, just an excuse to make the wealthy even wealthier.

I think space exploration has done a lot for humanity. It might be expensive, but compared to how costly sea voyages were to fund for ancient civilizations it's actually cheap. Exploration is always going to be expensive, but it's important, and I believe space will play a large role in our very near future. The technological boost the many satellites in Earth's multiple orbits give us is already well worth the money. I agree that we need to worry more about poverty, but this can be done without halting our scientific growth. Maybe cutting money from the bloated military would be a good place to start, which is a whole other issue.

Originally posted by HairlessApe

Originally posted by XaniMatriX
I am not trying to be negative or nothing like that, but discovering other planets and sending materials into space without it ever coming back, in my opinion, is as much a waste of money as is the military. They wont bring back cures, food, water, or feed and cloth this "world in poverty".

But i do like space and all it's wonders, but it can all be observed from here... there is no need to spend so much money on it, just an excuse to make the wealthy even wealthier.

I think space exploration has done a lot for humanity. It might be expensive, but compared to how costly sea voyages were to fund for ancient civilizations it's actually cheap. Exploration is always going to be expensive, but it's important, and I believe space will play a large role in our very near future. The technological boost the many satellites in Earth's multiple orbits give us is already well worth the money. I agree that we need to worry more about poverty, but this can be done without halting our scientific growth. Maybe cutting money from the bloated military would be a good place to start, which is a whole other issue.

Yes, and you are right, if it wasn't funded by the military it would actually be space exploration, but why not set up a frontier first with that money? i believe that would teach us even more, how to live in a 100% recycled environment, and that was their plan in the beginning, and then dropped all together, and most of those satellites are spy satellites, they do no one any favors.

Originally posted by midnightstar
dont have a clue what we could use to dectect like on world in other systems heck we cant even do it on mars yet . lol

We look at the spectrum for biomarkers in the planet's atmosphere. Ozone would be a good indicator as would chlorophyll, amongst others.

Red Edge

Probing atmospheres

I would hope the new satellite has this capability.

reply to post by HairlessApe


I hate to be pedantic but Kepler is the first Planet hunting satellite capable of finding Earth sized exoplanets which it is doing now , TESS will use the same technique but do it in a different way....that doesn't make it the first .

Given its short two year mission TESS is more a staging post between Kepler and the far more ambitious James Webb Space Telescope .

TESS will also serve as a logical progression from Kepler to later proposed exoplanet search platforms. TESS will also discover candidates for further scrutiny by as the James Webb Space Telescope to be launched in 2018 and the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) spectrometer based at La Silla Observatory in Chile

Is there other techniques to determine if stars have planets other than dips in light patterns of the host star? I ask because that would mean we can only discover if a star has planets only if the systems "plane" is on edge to us?

I haven't kept up lately but do they still use gravitational tugs to determine an exo-planets presence and/or mass?

I just can't shake the feeling we are missing something but I am thankful for a start at any rate...

Originally posted by gortex
reply to post by HairlessApe

 

I hate to be pedantic but Kepler is the first Planet hunting satellite capable of finding Earth sized exoplanets which it is doing now , TESS will use the same technique but do it in a different way....that doesn't make it the first .

The thread-title was technically wrong, but he clarified in the OP:

Unlike Kepler, which stares continuously at a single segment of the sky along the galactic plane in the direction of the constellations Cygnus, Hercules, and Lyra, TESS will be the first dedicated all-sky exoplanet hunting satellite.

(emphasis added)

So what if it's a way-point? Way-points are important.

reply to post by Saint Exupery

The thread-title was technically wrong, but he clarified in the OP:

The quote is from the article the emphasis added by you , nothing was cleared up by the OP the title is wrong .

So what if it's a way-point? Way-points are important.

Not as important as Kepler or James Webb which should be launched in 2018 .