Technology NASA, SpaceX to launch spacecraft to find another Earth

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The payload fairing for NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite.

NASA

TESS, a new NASA planet-hunting spacecraft, is set to write the next revolutionary chapter in astronomy by revealing more details about the nearest exoplanets and, perhaps, uncovering the first signs of life seen beyond our spinning rock.

For centuries we knew of no planets beyond this solar system, until the first trickle of exoplanet discoveries in the 1990s. Over the past several years NASA's Kepler Space Telescope has accelerated the pace of discovery, making it clear the galaxy is awash with planets. But Kepler is crippled and running out of fuel. 

NASA Tess spacecraft to prowl for planets as galactic scout

Look up at the sky tonight. Every star you see, plus hundreds of thousands, even millions more, will come under the intense stare of NASA's newest planet hunter. Look up at the sky tonight. Every star you see, plus hundreds of thousands, even millions more, will come under the intense stare of NASA's newest planet hunter.

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Fortunately, its successor, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, is waiting in the wings. More accurately, it's sitting in the nose cone of a rocket in Florida. 

TESS is scheduled to launch Monday aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, one of many missions Elon Musk's rocket company has partnered on with NASA. SpaceX also uses its Dragon cargo ships to resupply the International Space Station.

NASA's TESS will monitor 200,000 of the nearest stars using the same discovery method that enabled Kepler to spot 2,600 confirmed exoplanets. Its four wide-field cameras will watch for tell-tale dips in brightness that can be caused by an orbiting planet passing in front of a star. 

"TESS is going to essentially provide the catalog, like the phone book, if you will, of all the best planets for following up, for looking at their atmospheres and studying more about them," MIT astrophysics professor Sara Seager told me. Seager is part of the science leadership team for TESS and a driving force in the search for signs of life around other stars.

NASA's new planet-hunter to seek closer, Earth-like worlds

NASA is poised to launch a $337 million washing machine-sized spacecraft that aims to vastly expand mankind's search for planets beyond our solar system, particularly closer, Earth-sized ones that might harbor life. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, is scheduled to launch Monday at 6:32 pm (2232 GMT) atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida.Its main goal over the next two years is to scan more than 200,000 of the brightest stars for signs of planets circling them and causing a dip in brightness known as a transit.

Today, SpaceX is set to launch another one of its Falcon 9 rockets from Florida, sending cargo and supplies to the International Space Station for NASA . If all goes well, Dragon will join a small group of vehicles that have orbited the Earth multiple times — the most notable of which was NASA ’s

Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) is used for Falcon 9 launches to low Earth and geostationary orbits. ^ " NASA selects SpaceX 's Falcon 9 booster and Dragon spacecraft for cargo resupply services to the International Space Station" (Press release).

After TESS finds those worlds, a more sophisticated telescope, such as the James Webb Space Telescope that is set to launch in 2020, will be used to look for those signatures of potential life.  

"To me, TESS represents the very first opportunity to really, truly make progress in this area of trying to find signs of life on other worlds," Seager says. "It really has a chance to find a rocky planet ... that's the right distance from its star, the right temperature to have life on its surface. Tess will find a pool of planets like that."

Seager notes that many of the worlds TESS is likely to find may be similar to Earth in size and rocky composition, but will be different and weird in other ways. 

TESS will cast a wider net than ever before for enigmatic worlds. 

Like the nearest exoplanet, Proxima b, many will be in very close orbits of dwarf stars that prevent them from turning on their axes, leaving one side stuck in permanent nighttime darkness. These planets may also be showered by radiation from the frequent solar flares of red dwarf stars. 

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A major milestone for the partnership came in 2012 when SpaceX launched its first NASA cargo load, making it the first private company to send a spacecraft to the space station. The study found that its

Image: SpaceX . Next year is already overflowing with exciting missions to space . NASA is launching a new lander to Mars, as well as a spacecraft that will get closer to the Sun than ever before. The plan is for TESS to find the closest rocky exoplanets to Earth , so that astronomers can figure out the types

"We learned from Kepler that there are more planets than stars in our sky, and now TESS will open our eyes to the variety of planets around some of the closest stars," Paul Hertz, director of the astrophysics division at NASA headquarters, said in a statement. "TESS will cast a wider net than ever before for enigmatic worlds."   

TESS is set to launch from SpaceX's Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 6:32 ET. It will eventually settle into a 13.7-day orbit around Earth. 

It's been a busy time for SpaceX. In recent weeks it's launched the first Falcon Heavy rocket and received approval for a massive satellite broadband project, and it will soon launch a rocket that it hopes can be re-used up to 100 times. Musk, meanwhile, has his eyes set on Mars, a planet much closer to home. It's even planning to raise more money to help it achieve those goals. 

Musk plans for sending humans to Mars are still years away, but Seager estimates we might see TESS' first images of the night sky about 10 days after launch. The science mission, however, won't officially begin until about two months of testing the spacecraft's different systems are complete. 

SpaceX to build Mars rocket at the Port of Los Angeles

SpaceX plans to open up shop at the Port of Los Angeles where it'll work on research, design and development of its Mars rocket. Los Angeles officials said Monday that a tentative lease agreement would allow SpaceX to take over a dormant building at the port in a move that could bring as any as 700 jobs to the area.The deal is expected to be approved by board of harbor commissioners on Thursday.SpaceX won't have to pay rent for the facility for more than two decades. It will get more than $40 million in rent credits for renovating and upgrading the facility, which has been vacant since 2005.

Never before had SpaceX launched a pre-flown spacecraft atop a pre-flown rocket — and never before had the company employed a used rocket on a cargo mission for NASA . SpaceX Will Launch Another Used Dragon Capsule to Space Station Soon.

SpaceX has pulled off another one-two spaceflight punch. One of the company's Falcon 9 rockets Then, about 8 minutes after launch , the first stage of the two-stage Falcon 9 came back to Earth NASA has relied on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to ferry the agency's astronauts to and from the ISS

"I can't wait to see TESS launch and participate as the next step in human exploration of new worlds takes shape," Lisa Kaltenegger, a Cornell University professor and TESS science team member, said via email. "When looking up at night, we will be able to point at bright stars in the night sky and say, 'Right there, there is a star that hosts another Venus, Mars, or maybe even another Earth.'"

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© Provided by CNET An artist's rendition of TESS.