NASA awarded a contract today, with a potential value
of $28.4 million, to Ball Aerospace and Technology Corp.
(BATC), Boulder, Colo. for development of the optics and
detectors for a high-tech camera for the Kepler planet-
finding spacecraft, scheduled for launch in 2007.

Eastman Kodak will provide the entire optical subsystem for
the spacecraft, a contract valued at $4.5 million for a
two-year period. Kodak is providing a unique optical
subsystem for Kepler. Nothing similar has ever been flown
in space. The two-piece system enables an extremely wide
field of view, allowing Kepler to continuously gaze at more
than 100,000 stars at the same time.

Other major subcontractors are Semiconductor Technology
Associates in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., and EV2 of
Elmsford, N.Y., who are providing detectors for Kepler.

The Kepler Mission differs from previous ways of looking
for planets, which have led to the discovery of about 100
giant Jupiter-sized planets. Kepler will look for the
“transit” signature that occurs each time a planet crosses
the line-of-sight between a planet’s parent star, the one
it orbits, and the observer. During the orbital “transit,”
the planet blocks some of the light from its parent star
resulting in periodic dimming. This periodic signature is
used to detect the planet and to determine its size and
orbit. Kepler will be able to determine if any Earth-sized
planets make a transit across any of the stars.

“With its cutting-edge capability, Kepler may help us
answer one of the most enduring questions humans have asked
throughout history: ‘are there other planets like Earth in
the universe?'” said principal investigator William Borucki
of NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.,
leader of the mission.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages
the Kepler project for the Office of Space Science,
Washington. NASA’s Ames Research Center, Mountain View,
Calif., contracts with BATC for the Kepler photometer.

Details about the Kepler Mission are available at:
http://www.kepler.arc.nasa.gov