Transiting Exoplanet Survey Sattelite AKA Kepler's AWESOME successor

[Spaceception]

TESS is a Exoplanet hunting telescope that will (Hopefully) launch in August 2017 on a Falcon 9. It will look for nearby planets mainly around the nearest G-K type stars (The nearest 1000 M-dwarfs will also be looked at), with the intention of looking for Earth-like planets (Like Kepler is doing), And more than 200k stars will be studied in its 2 year mission.

IMO This will be the coolest telescope ever, and if any telescope is going to find a near-Earth twin close to us, it's this one, I cannot WAIT for this to launch

So what do you think about TESS? And do you think it'll find Earth 2.0?

Edited February 21, 2016 by Spaceception

[Mitchz95]

It sounds awesome. I'm glad we're finally taking a close look at the nearest stars, since they will be the most relevant to humanity's future once we start to spread beyond Earth.

[Spaceception]

3 minutes ago, Mitchz95 said:

It sounds awesome. I'm glad we're finally taking a close look at the nearest stars, since they will be the most relevant to humanity's future once we start to spread beyond Earth.

I really hope they find planets around Lalande 21185, and Epsilon Indi.

[Bill Phil]

Maybe we could find a planet around Tau Ceti....

Hopefully. But we don't want the Race to come knocking on our door... 

Epsilon Eridani is pretty cool, too.

[Spaceception]

1 minute ago, Bill Phil said:

Maybe we could find a planet around Tau Ceti....

Hopefully. But we don't want the Race to come knocking on our door... 

Epsilon Eridani is pretty cool, too.

They'd be confirming planets around Tau Ceti then https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tau_Ceti_e, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tau_Ceti#Planets

Don't hold your breath for a habitable exoplanet though, it may still be in the planet making process

[fredinno]

1 hour ago, Spaceception said:

TESS is a Exoplanet hunting telescope that will (Hopefully) launch in August 2017 on a Falcon 9 with the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer, It will look for nearby planets mainly around the nearest G-K type stars (The nearest 1000 M-dwarfs will also be looked at), with the intention of looking for Earth-like planets (Like Kepler is doing), And more than 200k stars will be studied in its 2 year mission.

IMO This will be the coolest telescope ever, and if any telescope is going to find a near-Earth twin close to us, it's this one, I cannot WAIT for this to launch

So what do you think about TESS? And do you think it'll find Earth 2.0?

Falcon 9 really is OP, you;d think this would launch on a Taurus (though OrbitalATK needs that to be recertified), Antares, or that final Delta II.

[Spaceception]

6 minutes ago, fredinno said:

Falcon 9 really is OP, you;d think this would launch on a Taurus (though OrbitalATK needs that to be recertified), Antares, or that final Delta II.

Maybe, but by the time it launches, it'll be mostly reusable, lowering costs, and enabling the TESS team to do more Exoplanet science

[fredinno]

Just now, Spaceception said:

Maybe, but by the time it launches, it'll be mostly reusable, lowering costs, and enabling the TESS team to do more Exoplanet science

It's unlikely reuse will do more than increase margins for SpaceX. Their prices per kg are already unmatched- also reuse has had a pretty bad performance historically.

[magnemoe]

5 minutes ago, fredinno said:

Falcon 9 really is OP, you;d think this would launch on a Taurus (though OrbitalATK needs that to be recertified), Antares, or that final Delta II.

The Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer will be put on ISS, probably for power. However this make us do an manned neutron star Interior composition explorer mission, who sounds more badass than eva observations while flying at Jool.
On the other hand this makes TESS an secondary payload. 

[fredinno]

17 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

The Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer will be put on ISS, probably for power. However this make us do an manned neutron star Interior composition explorer mission, who sounds more badass than eva observations while flying at Jool.
On the other hand this makes TESS an secondary payload. 

No, TESS is launching on a Falcon 9 all by itself.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Falcon_9_and_Falcon_Heavy_launches#Future_launches

[Spaceception]

1 minute ago, fredinno said:

No, TESS is launching on a Falcon 9 all by itself.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Falcon_9_and_Falcon_Heavy_launches#Future_launches

Oh, when I read the Wiki article, it said NSICE was launching with TESS, I guess that's outdated now.