Roger Hunter, Project Manager for the NASA KEPLER Mission, will present “NASA’s Kepler Mission: A Search for Habitable Planets” on Tuesday, April 10th from 2:30 – 4 p.m. in the Signal Mountain Room of the UTC University Center. KEPLER is NASA’s first mission to search for earth-sized planets in stars’ habitable zones in our galaxy. This lecture is free and open to the public.
“The Kepler project is a search for planets outside of our solar system. It consists of an orbiting observatory, much like the Hubble, staring at a patch of stars. What it is looking for is a dimming of the starlight as a planet passes in front of the star. This is similar to counting moths around a street light by monitoring the streetlight with a light meter,” explains Jack Pitkin, Operations Manager, UTC Jones Observatory.
Sixty-one confirmed planets and 1091 possible planets, including one in the habitable zone, have been identified by the Kepler project.
Prior to joining NASA, Roger Hunter worked for the Boeing Company as Site Manager in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In that position, he directed the efforts of more than 250 Boeing personnel and subcontractors in sustaining the Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite constellation and the Air Force’s GPS command and control system.
Before joining Boeing, Hunter served in the US Air Force, and retired after 22 years of service. His assignments included Commander, 2nd Space Operations Squadron, Deputy Operations Group Commander for the 50th Space Wing, and Program Manager for the XSS-10 microsatellite technology demonstration for Air Force Research Laboratory. He also had assignments with the Air Force Defense Support Program, HQ Air Force Space Command, and HQ Air Force at the Pentagon.
He holds degrees from the University of Georgia, US Air Force Institute of Technology, and the US Air Force School of Advanced Airpower Studies. He is also a graduate of the US Air Force Air War College, and US Air Force Air Command and Staff College.
For more information, please call the UTC Department of Physics, Geology and Astronomy at 423-425-4404.
