Spacecraft

The Kepler Space Observatory, a PI (Principal Investigator) class mission, was competitively
selected as NASA’s tenth Discovery mission. NASA selected BATC (Ball Aerospace and
Technologies Corporation) of Boulder, CO, as the prime contractor for both the photometer and
spacecraft. The prime contractor is also responsible for operating the mission. This approach
removes many contractual barriers to optimal mission design, efficiency, risk, and schedule for the
flight hardware and software. Having a single contractor allows for a single systems engineering
team and common subsystem engineering teams for software, thermal, integration and test, etc.
for both the photometer and the spacecraft. This approach has allowed for the broadest possible
trade space when conducting studies and further eliminates the need for defining many controlled
interfaces to external entities, which may often be artificial. 15) 16) 17)
Systems engineering is an important discipline in the development and execution of space-
astronomy missions. As observatories and instruments grow in size, complexity, and capability,
we are forced to deal with new performance regimes – in many cases forcing us to find solutions
to issues and error sources that could be safely ignored on past missions. Systems engineering, if
applied rigorously and judiciously, can bring to bear a suite of processes and tools that can help
balance risk, cost, and mission success. 18)
The Kepler mission has been optimized to search for Earth-size planets (0.5 to 10 earth masses) in
the HZ (Habitable Zone) of solar-like stars. Given this design, the mission will be capable of not
only detecting Earth analogs, but a wide range of planetary types and characteristics ranging from
Mars-size objects and orbital periods of days to gas-giants and decade long orbits. The mission is
designed to survey the full range of spectral-types of dwarf stars. Kepler utilizes photometry to
detect planet’s transiting their parent star. Three or more transits of a star with a statistically
consistent period, brightness change and duration provide a rigorous method of detection. From
the relative brightness change the planet size can be calculated. From the period the orbital size
can be calculated and its location relative to the HZ determined.
The Kepler spacecraft (Figure 3) has significant heritage from Deep Impact and Orbital Express
for many of its subsystems, particularly the avionics. The purpose of the spacecraft is to provide
power, pointing and telemetry for the photometer. The three-axis-stabilized spacecraft is fully
redundant and single-fault tolerant.
ADCS (Attitude Determination and Control Subsystem): Of primary concern for achieving the
photometric precision is attitude stability. Image motion has an adverse affect on the photometric
precision due to both the extended wings of the psf and the inter- and intra-pixel responsivity
variations. The requirement is to keep the temporal frequency of anything that can affect the
photometric precision well outside of the time domain for a transit. Transits can occur on time
scales from an hour or so (a grazing transit of a planet with an orbit of a few days) up to 16 hours
(a central transit of a planet with an orbit like Mars). To achieve the short term stability the ADCS
needs to operate at about 10 Hz to keep jitter low. The specification is 0.1 arcsec (3σ) about each
of three axes. To prevent long-term drifts, four fine guidance sensor CCDs are mounted to the
scientific focal plane at the four corners. Note that in heliocentric orbit, the only external torque is
solar radiation pressure (photons). Unlike Earth orbit, there is no gravity gradient, magnetic
torquing or atmospheric drag. Control is provided by four reaction wheels, which are unloaded
periodically by a twelve-thruster hydrazine reaction control system. There are ten coarse sun
sensors, two star trackers, and two three-axes inertial measurement units for initial acquisition, roll
maneuvers and safe-survival modes.

Figure 3: The Kepler spacecraft with the HGA (High Gain Antenna) deployed and the photometer
(image credit: NASA, KeplerTeam)
EPS (Electrical Power Subsystem): The EPS is based on a direct-energy transfer architecture. The
solar array is designed to produce at least 615 W at 29±4 V at the end of mission in the nominal
observing attitude. Solar-array strings are switched as required to provide power to flight segment
loads. The spacecraft is rotated 90º every three months to maintain the Sun on the solar array. The
solar array is thermally isolated from the spacecraft and photometer. A Li-ion battery is provided
to support launch and emergency modes, but is not needed for the observing mode.
The solar array is rigidly mounted to the spacecraft’s upper deck. As such, it pulls double-duty on
this mission, providing power, as well as shielding the photometer from direct solar heating. The
solar array is on four non-coplanar panels and totals 10.2 m2 of triple-junction photovoltaic cells.
It contains 130 strings each composed of 22 cells. The solar array is expected to generate up to
1,100 W of electrical power. Unlike most spacecraft solar arrays that are deployed or articulated,
Kepler’s solar array is fixed.
TCS (Thermal Control Subsystem): TCS is responsible for maintaining spacecraft component
temperatures within operational limits. The solar array and thermal blankets shield the photometer
from direct solar heating. The solar panels themselves are made out of a special material to
minimize heat flow to the photometer, and their finishes also help regulate panel temperature.
Kepler is also protected by an “active” thermal control system that consists of heat pipes, thermally
conductive adhesives, heaters and temperature sensors. Propane and ammonia flowing through
pipes embedded in the spacecraft’s exterior panels cool the focal plane. Various parts of the
spacecraft that need to be heated in order to operate are equipped with controlled heaters but
insulated to avoid heating the photometer.
Avionics: The spacecraft avionics are derived from the design used for the Orbital Express
mission. They are fully redundant and can be cross switched between the A and B sides. The
processors are the same as for the photometer, radiation hardened PowerPC 750s built by BAE.
The avionics provide command and telemetry processing, formatting and storage of spacecraft
housekeeping data, thermal control processing, ADCS processing, a mission unique board for
items like the cover release, and network interfaces between all of the subsystems and with the
photometer. Redundant crystal oscillators are used for on-board time keeping with drift rates of
less than 5 x 10-11.
RF Telecommunications: Telemetry for the stored data will be transmitted to the ground using a
Ka-band (32 GHz) high-gain antenna (HGA) with a diameter of 0.8 m. Data rates range up to 2.88
Mbps and use a 35 W TWTA (Traveling Wave Tube Amplifier). The command uplink and
realtime engineering data downlink will use an omni-directional X-band (8 GHz) antenna system
and a 25 W TWTA. A 34 m BWG (Beam Wave Guide) antenna is baselined for the uplink
transmitter. The one-time release HGA boom and the redundant two-axes gimbal are the only
mechanisms on the spacecraft. The command contacts and data downlinks should not interrupt the
precision or recording of the scientific data.
Spacecraft dimensions The overall size is about 2.7 m in diameter and
4.7 m high.
Spacecraft mass Launch mass of 1052.4 kg, consisting of 562.7
kg for the spacecraft, 478 kg for the
 photometer, and 11.7 kg of hydrazine
propellant
Power Power is provided by four non-coplanar panels
with a total area of 10.2 m2 of solar collecting
area. Combined, the 2860 individual solar cells
can produce over 1,100W. Power storage is
provided by a 20 Amp-hour rechargeable
lithium-ion battery.
Fine pointing The spacecraft is three-access stabilized to
better than 9 milliarcseconds, 3σ over 15
minutes using fine-guidance sensors located
on the instrument focal plane.
Telemetry X-band is used for uplink commanding and
realtime engineering data downlinking. Ka-
band is used to downlink the stored science and
engineering data.
Data storage capability About 60 days

Spacecraft structures and mechanisms: The majority of Kepler’s systems and subsystems are
mounted on a low-profile hexagonal box which is wrapped around the base of the photometer. The
hexagonal box structure consists of six shear panels, a top deck, bottom deck, reaction control
system deck, and the launch vehicle adapter ring. Construction of the shear panels, decks, and solar
array substrates, consists of sandwiched aluminum face-sheets on an aluminum honeycomb core.
The six shear panels provide structure to accommodate mounting of the spacecraft electronics,
portions of the photometer electronics, battery, star trackers, reaction wheels, inertial measurement
units, radio equipment, and high- and low-gain antennas.
The top deck shear panel provides the mounting surface for the solar array panels. The bottom
deck provides the interface to the photometer and also supports the thrusters, associated propellant
lines, and launch vehicle umbilical connectors. The reaction control system deck is attached to the
inside of the launch vehicle adapter ring, and provides a mounting surface for the tank, pressure
transducer, latch valves, and propellant lines. The base of the photometer is mounted to the lower
deck.
Figure 4: Kepler spacecraft integrated with Photometer (image credit: NASA, Kepler Team)
Figure 5: The Kepler spacecraft in Astrotech's Hazardous Processing Facility in Titusville, FL in
February 2009 (image credit: NASA)
Key Mission Requirements
Key considerations when looking for planetary transits are the probability for the orbital plane to
be aligned along the line of sight and the number of stars to monitor. The probability of orbital
alignment is simply the ratio of the stellar diameter to the orbital diameter. For the Sun-Earth
analogy the probability is 0.5%. Hence, one needs to monitor many thousands of stars before one
can arrive at a statistically meaningful result, null or otherwise.
In addition, a sequence of transits with a consistent period, depth and duration must be detected to
be confident and to confirm the existence of a planet. A Sun-Earth-like transit produces an apparent
change in brightness of the star of 84 ppm (parts per million) with a duration of 13 hours, if it
crosses near the center of the star. For a statistically significant detection, the minimum single
transit Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) requirement is taken to be 4σ, leading to a combined average
significance of 8σ for 4 such transits. The detection threshold is set at 7σ, yielding a detection rate
of 84% while controlling the total number of expected false alarms to no more than one for the
entire experiment. The total system noise, defined to be the CDPP (Combined Differential
Photometric Precision), must be less than 21 ppm in 6.5 hours (half of a central transit duration).
The resulting driving requirements for the Kepler Mission are:
1) A CDPP of 20 ppm in 6.5 hrs and the ability to detect a single Earth-like transit with an SNR>4
2) The capability to monitor >100,000 stars simultaneously (>170,000 stars in the first year)
3) A mission duration of at least four years.
Sensor Complement (Photometer)
Table 2: Main parameters of the photometer
Spaceborne Photometer0.95 m aperture
Primary mirror 1.4 m diameter, 85% light weighted
Detectors 95 Mpixels (42 CCDs with 2200 x 1024 pixels)
Bandpass 430-890 nm FWHM (Full Width Half Maximum)
Dynamic range 9th to 15th magnitude stars
Fine guidance sensors 4 CCDs located on science FPA (Focal Plane Array)
Attitude stability better than 9 marcsec, 3σ over 15 minutes
Science data storage about 2 months

The instrument has the sensitivity to detect an Earth-size transit of an mv=12 G2V (solar-like) star
at 4 σ in 6.5 hours of integration. The instrument has a spectral bandpass from 400 nm to 850 nm.
Data from the individual pixels that make up each star of the 100,000 main-sequence stars brighter
than mv=14 are recorded continuously and simultaneously. The data are stored on the spacecraft
and transmitted to the ground about once a month. 22)
Figure 8: Illustration of the Photometer in the Kepler telescope shell (image credit: NASA, Kepler
Team, Ref. 19)
Photometer Instrument
The sole instrument aboard Kepler is a photometer (or light meter), an instrument that measures
the brightness variations of stars. The photometer consists of the telescope, the focal plane array
and the local detector electronics.
Telescope: Kepler has a very large field of view — approximately 100 square degrees — for an
astronomical telescope. The photometer optics are a modification of the classic Schmidt telescope
design. They include a 0.95 m aperture fused-silica Schmidt corrector plate and a 1.4 m diameter
85% light weighted ultra-low expansion-glass primary mirror. The mirror has an enhanced silver
coating. The optical design results in 95% of the energy from a star being distributed over an area
at the focal plane of approximately seven pixels in diameter. The primary mirror is mounted onto
three focus mechanisms, which may be used in flight to make fine focus adjustments. The focus
mechanisms can adjust the mirror’s piston, tip and tilt. While electrical power is required to move
the focus mechanisms, they are designed to hold the position of the primary mirror without
continuous power. A sunshade is mounted at the front of the telescope to prevent sunlight from
entering the photometer. Kepler is the ninth largest Schmidt telescope ever built and the largest
telescope ever to be launched beyond Earth orbit.
Figure 9: Inspection of the 1.4 meter primary mirror honeycomb structure. The mirror has been
86% light weighted, and only weighs 14% of a solid mirror of the same dimensions (image credit:
NASA, Kepler Team)
FPA (Focal Plane Array): At the heart of the photometer is the Focal Plane Array. This consists of
a set of CCDs (Charged Coupled Devices), sapphire field flattening lenses, an invar substrate, heat
pipes and radiator.
The CCDs are the silicon light-sensitive chips that are used in today’s TV cameras, camcorders
and digital cameras. The CCDs aboard Kepler are not used to take pictures in the conventional
sense. Kepler’s wide-field optics reflect light from the star field onto the array of 42 CCDs. Each
of the 42 CCDs are 59 x 28 mm in size and contain 2,200 by 1024 pixels, that is, individual picture
elements, for a total of 95 Mpixels. The CCDs are four-phase, thinned, back-illuminated and anti-
reflection coated devices. Each device has two outputs, resulting in a total of 84 data channels. The
CCDs are mounted in pairs and have a single sapphire field-flattening lens over each pair. The
optics spread the light of the stars over several pixels within an individual CCD to improve
differential photometry thus making the system less sensitive to inter-pixel response variations and
pointing jitter.
The focal plane is cooled to about -85º Celsius by heat pipes that carry the heat to an external
radiator. Data from the CCDs are extracted every six seconds to limit saturation and added on
board to form a 30-minute sum for each pixel. The array is supported midway between the Schmidt
corrector and the primary mirror.

Figure 10: Completed flight focal plane array with the 42 science CCDs and four fine guidance
CCDs in the corners (image credit: NASA, Kepler Team)
Local detector electronics: A local detector electronics box communicates with the 84 data
channels and converts the CCD output analog signals into digital data. The electronics box is
located directly behind the focal-plane array in the center of the photometer structure. It has more
than 22,000 electronic components tightly packed into a volume measuring slightly more than one
cubic foot. Careful thermal engineering was required in order to isolate the cold detectors from the
heat of the detector electronics. The data are stored in the spacecraft’s solid-state recorder and
transmitted to the ground approximately once a month.
Data handling: Since the entire 95 Mpixels of data cannot be stored continuously for 30 days, the
science team has pre-selected the pixels of interest associated with each star of interest. This
amounts to about 5 %of the pixels. These data are then requantized, compressed and stored. The
on-board photometer flight software gathers the science and ancillary pixel data and stores them
in a 16 GB solid-state recorder. Data are required to be stored and downlinked for science stars, p-
mode stars, smear, black level, background and full FOV images.
The Kepler focal plane is approximately 30 x 30 cm in size. It is composed of 25 individually
mounted modules. The 4 corner modules are used for fine guiding and the other 21 modules are
used for science observing. Attached are some pictures that show a single science module and the
assembled focal plane with all 25 modules installed.
Note that the fine guidance modules in the corners of the focal plane are very much smaller CCDs
than the science modules. On the left, a single science module with two CCDs and a single field
flattening lens mounted onto an Invar carrier. On the right of Figure 11, a focal plane assembly
with all 21 science modules and four fine-guidance sensors, one in each corner, installed. Under
normal operations, each module and its electronics convert light into digital numbers. For the
darkest parts of the image between stars, we expect these numbers to be very small (but not zero).
Correspondingly, for the brightest stars in the image, much larger numbers are expected creating
an image of each observed star and its background neighborhood. 23)

Figure 11: Left: Single 2-CCD module, Right: Full focal plane CCD assembly (image credit:
NASA, Kepler Team)
Selecting the Kepler Star Field: The star field for the Kepler Mission was selected based on the
following constraints:
1) The field must be continuously viewable throughout the mission.
2) The field needs to be rich in stars similar to our sun because Kepler needs to observe more than
100,000 stars simultaneously.
3) The spacecraft and photometer, with its sunshade, must fit inside a standard Delta II launch
vehicle.
The size of the optics and the space available for the sunshield require the center of the star field
to be more than 55º above or below the path of the sun as the spacecraft orbits the sun each year
trailing behind the Earth.
This left two portions of the sky to view, one each in the northern and southern sky. The Cygnus-
Lyra region in the northern sky was chosen for its rich field of stars somewhat richer than a
southern field. Consistent with this decision, all of the ground-based telescopes that support the
Kepler team’s follow-up observation work are located at northern latitudes.
Distances to the Kepler Stars: Kepler will be looking along the Orion spiral arm of our galaxy. The
distance to most of the stars for which Earth-size planets can be detected by Kepler is from 600 to
3,000 light years. Less than 1% of the stars that Kepler will be looking at are closer than 600 light
years. Stars farther than 3,000 light years are too faint for Kepler to observe the transits needed to
detect Earth-size planets.

Figure 12: The Kepler Field of View (image credit: NASA, Kepler Team)