In Science fiction, there are multiple scenarios surrounding humanity’s “first contact” with life “out there”. A lot of them involve Earth launching some probe or something that catches the attention of another civilization. It remains to be seen whether or not we’ve already done this, as we’ve been launching stuff for years, from the days of Voyager to now. Today, Nasa has launched our latest, 600 million dollar project: the Kepler mission. As a Roddenberryist science fiction person, this is the project most in line with what I believe the space program should be doing. Kepler is, in Trek terms, the beginning of accurate stellar cartography. And it’s got a bold mission. It’s NASA’s first mission capable of finding Earth-size and smaller planets around other stars.

Now, determining the relevance of an “Earth size planet” is probably going to depend largely on your understanding of The Drake Equation. But assuming you get it (or trust the eggheads enough to let it go) — Kepler is pretty cool.

The scientific objective of the Kepler Mission is to explore the structure and diversity of planetary systems. This is achieved by surveying a large sample of stars to:

1. Determine the percentage of terrestrial and larger planets there are in or near the habitable zone of a wide variety of stars;
2. Determine the distribution of sizes and shapes of the orbits of these planets;
3. Estimate how many planets there are in multiple-star systems;
4. Determine the variety of orbit sizes and planet reflectivities, sizes, masses and densities of short-period giant planets;
5. Identify additional members of each discovered planetary system using other techniques; and
6. Determine the properties of those stars that harbor planetary systems.

The Kepler Mission also supports the objectives of future NASA Origins theme missions Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) and Terrestrial Planet Finder (TPF),

* By identifying the common stellar characteristics of host stars for future planet searches,
* By defining the volume of space needed for the search and
* By allowing SIM to target systems already known to have terrestrial planets.

At some point, either Kepler keeps on floating and finds nothing, or it finds out that not only are we not alone, but that we’re the laughing stock of the galaxy. The folks who burn stuff for fuel and throw things into orbit for no apparent reason. And we may have to explain all the unsecured radio and video broadcasts for the past 50 years. We could be quite the entertainment for a more advanced civilization. But then there’s also the chance, however slight, that WE’re the more advanced, and we’ve effectively scared the hell out of some neighboring solar system with Kepler.

Whatever the outcome, this is where we were headed with the first launches into space. Hopefully not a future of colonialism, but a future of exploration and cooperation.

I watched Kepler take off with the wonder and pride of a child. And this time I was able to watch with children of my own.

The Sci-Fi Generation set events into motion that are supposed to be picked up by the next generation. We’ve been off our game. But with X-Prize, Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, and now NASA getting back on track…we may be back in business!

You can follow Kepler’s progress via twitter. Yes, that’s pretty geeky. But they’re more interesting updates than Hammer and Shaq.