David Koch, a graduate of Milwaukee Lutheran High School, smiles as he talks in his Elm Grove home about his role in the discovery of the planet Kepler-22b. Credit: Mike De Sisti

While the NASA telescope he helped create scans the galaxy for stirrings of life on distant planets, David Koch fights for his own.

Born in Milwaukee 66 years ago, Koch returned to Wisconsin last year to be close to family during his struggle with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, which affects the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord controlling muscle movement.

He was too weak to travel to California last week for the announcement of the mission's first big success - the discovery of planet Kepler-22b, a rock with similarities to Earth and a sweet-spot distance from its star that creates temperatures and other conditions that could support life.

"From what we have measured so far, we say water could exist. We don't say it's there," Koch said, tempering my excitement over when we get to meet our new neighbors.

ALS affects everyone differently. It was in December 2008 that Koch was putting up Christmas lights and found he couldn't lift his arm.

His condition grew progressively worse to where he has difficulty holding his head up, turning the pages of a book, speaking and even breathing, though he still can stand. As a person accustomed to making things happen, he feels frustrated.

Doctors made the ALS diagnosis in March 2009, the same month a rocket carried the Kepler telescope into space to begin its mission of staring at the stars. We can detect planets trillions of miles away, but so far the cause and cure for his disease are unknown.

As we talked last week at the Elm Grove home where Koch lives with his wife, Diane, he would occasionally rest his head on two pillows on the dining room table or support it with his left hand.

But his mental acuity still shines through, even when discussing complicated aspects of space exploration.

Born the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Koch grew up near 18th and Capitol in Milwaukee and attended Milwaukee Lutheran High School.

Last Sunday, the school honored him as a distinguished grad with its Cum Deo Award, meaning "with God."

"This might be the smartest guy I've ever met and talked to, with all due respect to everyone I've ever met," said Paul Bahr, who was principal at Milwaukee Lutheran for 21 years before becoming the school's senior vice president of development in June.

Koch's son, Philip, now teaches and coaches at the school.

Koch received a degree in applied math and engineering physics from UW-Madison and went on to graduate school at Cornell University. He remained out east working on X-ray astronomy and then on telescope projects at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.

He went to work for NASA in 1988 at the Ames Research Center in California.

It was there he met William Borucki, who first developed the idea for the project. Koch eventually came up with the name for the mission, honoring Johannes Kepler, the 17th-century astronomer who discovered the laws of planetary motion.

Borucki, I've learned, also was a Wisconsin guy, attending Delavan High School and then UW before joining NASA 49 years ago.

He came up with the transit method of studying planets, which involves measuring dips in the brightness of a star when a planet crosses in front of it. The planet itself is not seen, only its effect on the star.

"Nobody believed it was going to work. I was never going to get it accepted. Dave Koch heard about this and said, 'I believe. And I will work with you,' " Borucki said in a telephone interview Friday. "He had lots of experience in space missions and projects. I didn't have any. I just basically had the idea."

They began working on the project in 1992 and pitched it to NASA unsuccessfully several times before getting approval in 2001.

A telescope the size and weight of a VW bus trails the Earth in its orbit around the sun. With rocklike steadiness, it gazes at about 150,000 stars and so far has discovered more than 2,300 new planet candidates, including 48 that exist in the so-called habitable zone, meaning life could be possible there.

As recently as 1995, there were no confirmed planets at all outside our own solar system.

"The mission is working so well that we're finding planets faster than we can confirm them," Borucki said.

Kepler-22b, which is more than twice as wide as Earth and orbits its star every 290 days, is the first to be confirmed. Its surface and atmosphere are unknown. Hold off on your travel plans. It is 600 light years away. At 6 trillion miles per light year, that sounds far until you consider that the galaxy where our own solar system and Kepler-22b reside is 100,000 light years across.

The mission is approved for four years, but the Kepler team is hoping to get it extended. His failing health forced Koch to retire in August, but he still keeps up on the project.

"I thank the Lord for what I can still do," he said. "I look at God as the greatest physicist."

A lifetime of scientific discovery has reinforced Koch's faith in God. He treasures his Lutheran faith, and he taught Bible classes until this year.

Borucki compared their Kepler project to building a cathedral. They laid in the floor, and it will be up to future generations to erect the walls and roof.

Humans need to stay curious, Koch said, and we must keep exploring our own world and others. As a scientist, he hesitated to speculate about whether there are creatures like us elsewhere in the universe.

"Maybe we're unique," he said. "Maybe we're the only place where there is intelligent life. We don't know. That's what is so important about this first step."

Call Jim Stingl at (414) 224-2017 or email at jstingl@journalsentinel.com



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