How is the data from the pixels downloaded?
The Kepler data is stored onboard, and downloaded once per month. It is transmitted from the spacecraft to Earth via NASA’s Deep Space Network. The NASA Deep Space Network – or DSN – is an international network of antennas that supports interplanetary spacecraft missions and radio and radar astronomy observations for the exploration of the solar system and the universe. The DSN currently consists of three deep-space communications facilities placed approximately 120 degrees apart around the world: at Goldstone, in California’s Mojave Desert; near Madrid Spain; and near Canberra Australia. This strategic placement permits constant observation of spacecraft as the Earth rotates, and helps to make the DSN the largest and most sensitive scientific telecommunications system in the world. From the DSN, the data flows to the Mission Operations Center in Boulder, CO, then to the Data Management Center in Baltimore, MD, home of the Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute. The raw data is archi
