t is on its orbit). And that should exactly match what we have with Kepler. If they have the same orbital period and they occur at the same time, we can say yes, we have a confirmation and can announce it.
How did you develop the general concept of the Kepler Mission?
I did photometry for the Apollo program, and I realized 25 years ago that this would be another way to find planets. I realized that it would be a good method to find small planets. Radio of velocity doesn't do a good job finding small planets with long orbits, but photometry does fine. The trick was to develop a detector system that could have the precision that was required. So I started building photometers, for at least a decade, of different kinds and trying them out at observatories to see how they worked. I was finally convinced that we could build this into a spacecraft and go search for planets. At the same time, NASA came up with a new program called the Discovery Program, and I knew that would be big enough to carry the telescope we needed to put it into space. It took a pretty big rocket to put the Kepler into orbitit was the size of a VW van.
You've said that you have dreamed of discovering life on other planets since you were a kid. Was there one moment where you thought to yourself, wow, this is amazingthis is really going to mean something?
I'm a little hesitant to describe it, but I'll tell you. When I was a kid, I built rockets. And I had the privilege of going up to the big rocket booster, which was 15 stories high, and I thought, this is going to carry my experiment into space. It really made it real to see that giant rocket there, ready to make this work. It was really a special experience.
And of course, the experience of seeing Kepler launch into space, see it arch through the sky and disappear into orbit, that was wonderful, as was listening to the radio signals when it was going to eject its cover. The telescope is launched into orbit with a cover across the lens. And everybody's sitting there in the control room two weeks later, saying, we've checked all the electronics and everything's ready. Let's see if the cover will come off. Sometimes those mechanical things stick, and that's the end of the mission. It was a thrilling time. The cover came off and we got first lightwe saw the stars through it. Wonderful.
What do you plan to do with the Kepler mission next? What do you hope to find?
What the mission is designed for, and I'm going to be a little facetious here, is to be the most boring mission ever launched. It simply takes images every 6 seconds of the skythe same part of the sky, the same group of stars, over and over again. And that is so wonderful. We get this marvelous data set, and the longer you look, the smaller the planets you find. The longer you look, the more planets you find in the habitable zone. This is just the most marvelous mission that has ever been launched. Hubble Space Telescope is a small candle compared to the light of this mission. Year after year, we'll be finding more planets, more planetary systems. And we'll find out the answer to the question "Are earths common?" Are earths in the habitable zone common? And if the answer is yes, life is probably common, too. And that means that we can move forward to new missions that go and explore those planets and find life on those planets.