
NASA to Launch Planet-Hunting Kepler Spacecraft Tonight - gibsonf1
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/090306-kepler-planethunter-launch-preview.html
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DanielBMarkham
To me, this mission has the greatest potential for truly advancing space
science of anything we've seen in a while: direct measurements of extrasolar
planets.

I'm really pumped about this launch. Let's keep our fingers crossed that
everything goes okay. It could truly change at a gut level the average man's
view of how he fits into the universe.

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electromagnetic
Agreed, this is the best project in a while that might not necessarily produce
amazing scientific results (I think theres a lot more projects on earth that
will reveal more about the universe, namely the LHC), however this will
potentially change how everyone sees space science again.

I mean this has the potential to bring funding to space agencies like landing
on the moon did. This could finally bring the money into the space agencies
that they can do both science and manned missions, not one or the other.

IMO all the knowledge of the universe is useless if humanity is never going to
get out of our dirt wallow and explore it. Not to mention, avoiding the whole
cataclysmic failure of our planet will be a plus.

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bradgessler
I hope this doesn't fall back to Earth like the carbon observatory did.

