Folks have commented that Kepler will find planets for TPF to scope out. This will not happen. Reason being that Kepler looks at a somewhat narrow field towards the galactic arms. It scans ~ a million stars to find some small percentage that are edge on (less than 10%) and then an UNKNOWN but likely smaller % that have Earthlike orbits & sized planets. TFP at BEST can image Earthlike planets out to about 50 LY. Within this sphere there maybe 80 F5-K3 stars. Likely only a handful of these, if any, lie within the Kepler field. So, the probabilities of Kepler providing targets for TPF are miniscule.

Kepler's detection method is not that distance dependent, unlike TPF's. Let's say that Kepler detects Earth types at a statistical rate of 1 per thousand stars whose orbits are inclined correctly to ours. That means that the odds of TPF finding even ONE terrestrial planet in it's 50 LY (IF that) detection zone are miniscule. Will the $2 Billion really get spent on TPF once scientists with alternative pet projects get the results from Kepler?

-philw (careful what you wish for, you just might get it)