21 Dec 2001. space.com. Kepler Mission to Find Earth-Like Planets Gets Green Light

2001 June 9 (original publish date) pp. 162-169 WIRED: Shadow Science: Looking for Earth-like planets outside the solar system? Bill Borucki's cheap little spacecraft can help you fin a few hundred, fast. This story is about the early lab work that proved the concept for Kepler.

Jun. 04, 2001. Kepler and Mars--Understanding How Planets Move, by Edna DeVore - SETI Institute Director of Education and Public Outreach. Mars -- the Red Planet, the god of war, the home of life? Of all the planets in the solar system, Mars ranks first on a short list as a home for life beyond Earth, past or present, in the minds of scientists and science fiction writers alike. Today, we are a bit closer to a definitive answer than we were when ancient people looked up at the ruddy "star" glimmering in the evening sky and called it Mars. The study of Mars led early astronomers to understand how the solar system works, and to develop a model that displaced Earth -- and humans -- from the center of the universe. They made one small step toward our current understanding of the universe.
Full article at SETI Institute site or at Space.com site

19 March 2001 Other Earths by Gentry Lee.

2 Dec 1999. Nature. How common are habitable planets? By Jack. J. LissauerOct.

1998-2004 Stars and Habitable Planets: http://www.solstation.com/habitable.htm

1998. DPS Meeting, Madison. The Kepler Mission, A Search for Habitable Planets: Concept, Capabilities and Strengths. Borucki, Lissaue, Dunham, J. Jenkins