Post by swamprat on Aug 27, 2021 15:09:17 GMT
Webb Telescope Done Testing, Aims For Spaceport
Posted by Lia De La Cruz and Deborah Byrd
August 27, 2021
Webb Telescope is Hubble’s successor
The European Space Agency (ESA) said on August 26, 2021, that the James Webb Space Telescope has now completed its final tests. It’s now being prepared for shipment to its launch site from the European Spaceport located near Kourou, French Guiana. Webb is an international partnership between NASA, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency. NASA had said on June 3 that the telescope would ship to the launch site in August “with little to no schedule margin.” That tight schedule would bring the telescope to launch readiness no earlier than October 31. But a November launch (or later) may still be more likely.
The space telescope underwent testing at Northrop Grumman’s facilities in California. ESA said: "Shipment operations have now begun. All the necessary steps are being taken to prepare Webb for a safe journey through the Panama Canal to its launch location … on the northeastern coast of South America."
Once Webb arrives at Europe’s Spaceport, launch processing teams will prepare and configure the observatory for flight. This involves post-shipment checkouts and carefully loading the spacecraft’s propellant tanks with fuel. Then, engineering teams will mate the observatory to its launch vehicle, an Ariane 5 rocket provided by ESA, and make a ‘dress rehearsal,’ before it rolls out to the launch pad two days before launch.
Launch from near Earth’s equator
The upper stage of the Ariane 5, which will carry Webb to space later this year, is already on its way to Europe’s Spaceport. Overnight on August 17, 2021, the upper stage was transported in its container from Ariane Group in Bremen to Neustadt port in Germany. Here it boarded the MN Toucan vessel, alongside other Ariane 5 elements loaded in various European harbors, to continue its journey to Kourou, French Guiana.
Following launch, the massive space observatory will then make its way to Lagrange Point 2, a gravitationally stable point 930,000 miles (1.5 million km) from our planet. Webb will take about a month to fly to this location in space. As it travels there, beginning a few days after launch, it’ll begin slowly unfolding its biggest feature, its tennis court-sized sunshield, designed to reduce the sun’s heat by more than a million times to -364 degrees F (-220 degrees C). Webb’s mirror and instrumentation have to be kept cold. If they were to be heated up by the sun, they’d give off infrared radiation. And it’s faint infrared signals from the distant cosmos that the Webb is meant to measure. ESA commented that each step of the cool-down process: "… can be controlled expertly from the ground, giving Webb’s launch full control to circumnavigate any unforeseen issues with deployment."
ESA said the mission team can manage the cool-down, which will take several weeks, with heaters to control stresses on instruments and structures. In the meantime, ESA said: "… the secondary mirror tripod will unfold, the primary mirror will unfold, Webb’s instruments will slowly power up, and thruster firings will insert the observatory into a prescribed orbit."
After orbital insertion, and after the telescope has cooled down and stabilized at its frigid operating temperature, the mission team will spend several months aligning its optics and calibrating its scientific instruments. Then Webb will begin studying the cosmos in infrared light using its dazzling golden mirror.
What’s huge, grand, and golden?
One of the Webb’s most important and identifiable attributes is its 21-foot-wide (6.5-meter-wide) primary mirror. A reflecting telescope’s primary mirror determines how much light it can collect, and thus how deeply it can see into the universe. Webb’s mirror is nearly three times wider than Hubble’s primary mirror.
You might hear people speak of the Webb’s golden mirror. The mirror is actually multiple mirrors. It’s composed of 18 separate hexagonal-shaped segments made of very strong, ultra-lightweight beryllium, which will unfold after launch. Each of the telescope’s mirror segments is covered in a microscopically thin layer of gold. This gold covering optimizes the mirror segments for reflecting infrared light, which is the primary wavelength of light this telescope will observe.
Webb Telescope has had a long road
The Webb’s development began in 1996, with a $500 million budget. Space scientists and engineers initially planned the launch for 2007. But the project has had considerable delays and cost overruns, and it underwent a major redesign in 2005. Afterward, they planned the launch for March 2020, but the coronavirus pandemic struck and caused major setbacks.
Yet, now, the team has made significant progress. NASA says existing program funding will have the Webb finished within its current $8.8 billion cost cap. In December 2020, the sunshield of a fully assembled James Webb Space Telescope successfully completed its own final tests, including a complete unfolding, just as the telescope will need to do once in space.
Formerly known as the Next Generation Space Telescope, scientists renamed the Webb in September 2002 after James Webb, who was an esteemed former NASA administrator.
NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency are partnering on the Webb. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the development effort, while Northrop Grumman serves as the project’s main industrial partner.
As it has for the Hubble Space Telescope, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore will be operating the Webb telescope after launch.
Technologies advance
As you would expect, the capabilities of the Webb extend beyond those of the Hubble Space Telescope. NASA likes to say that the Webb is not a replacement for Hubble, but rather a successor. The two telescopes will collaborate side by side for a while, with a planned overlap.
The Webb will observe farther into the infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum than Hubble. It’ll go even deeper into space than Hubble, and thus it’ll look farther into the past. It’ll be able to peer inside stellar dust clouds where stars and star systems form. Thaddeus Cesari, a communications specialist for the mission, wrote: "In addition to the groundbreaking science expected from it after launch, Webb has required an improvement in the testing infrastructure and processes involved in validating large complex spacecraft for a life in space … Lessons learned from previous space telescope development were invested into Webb, and future space telescopes will be built upon the same collective knowledge."
Thousands of scientists, engineers, and technicians contributed to build, test, and integrate Webb. In total, 258 companies, agencies, and universities participated: 142 from the United States, 104 from 12 European nations, and 12 from Canada.
Bottom line: The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s most complex infrared telescope. On August 26, 2021, ESA said the telescope has finished its testing and is being prepared for shipment to its launch site at the European Spaceport located near Kourou, French Guiana, on the northeastern coast of South America.
Via ESA
earthsky.org/space/james-webb-telescope-hubble-successor-to-launch/?utm_source=EarthSky+News&utm_campaign=c53e223418-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_02_02_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c643945d79-c53e223418-394368745
Posted by Lia De La Cruz and Deborah Byrd
August 27, 2021
Webb Telescope is Hubble’s successor
The European Space Agency (ESA) said on August 26, 2021, that the James Webb Space Telescope has now completed its final tests. It’s now being prepared for shipment to its launch site from the European Spaceport located near Kourou, French Guiana. Webb is an international partnership between NASA, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency. NASA had said on June 3 that the telescope would ship to the launch site in August “with little to no schedule margin.” That tight schedule would bring the telescope to launch readiness no earlier than October 31. But a November launch (or later) may still be more likely.
The space telescope underwent testing at Northrop Grumman’s facilities in California. ESA said: "Shipment operations have now begun. All the necessary steps are being taken to prepare Webb for a safe journey through the Panama Canal to its launch location … on the northeastern coast of South America."
Once Webb arrives at Europe’s Spaceport, launch processing teams will prepare and configure the observatory for flight. This involves post-shipment checkouts and carefully loading the spacecraft’s propellant tanks with fuel. Then, engineering teams will mate the observatory to its launch vehicle, an Ariane 5 rocket provided by ESA, and make a ‘dress rehearsal,’ before it rolls out to the launch pad two days before launch.
Launch from near Earth’s equator
The upper stage of the Ariane 5, which will carry Webb to space later this year, is already on its way to Europe’s Spaceport. Overnight on August 17, 2021, the upper stage was transported in its container from Ariane Group in Bremen to Neustadt port in Germany. Here it boarded the MN Toucan vessel, alongside other Ariane 5 elements loaded in various European harbors, to continue its journey to Kourou, French Guiana.
Following launch, the massive space observatory will then make its way to Lagrange Point 2, a gravitationally stable point 930,000 miles (1.5 million km) from our planet. Webb will take about a month to fly to this location in space. As it travels there, beginning a few days after launch, it’ll begin slowly unfolding its biggest feature, its tennis court-sized sunshield, designed to reduce the sun’s heat by more than a million times to -364 degrees F (-220 degrees C). Webb’s mirror and instrumentation have to be kept cold. If they were to be heated up by the sun, they’d give off infrared radiation. And it’s faint infrared signals from the distant cosmos that the Webb is meant to measure. ESA commented that each step of the cool-down process: "… can be controlled expertly from the ground, giving Webb’s launch full control to circumnavigate any unforeseen issues with deployment."
ESA said the mission team can manage the cool-down, which will take several weeks, with heaters to control stresses on instruments and structures. In the meantime, ESA said: "… the secondary mirror tripod will unfold, the primary mirror will unfold, Webb’s instruments will slowly power up, and thruster firings will insert the observatory into a prescribed orbit."
After orbital insertion, and after the telescope has cooled down and stabilized at its frigid operating temperature, the mission team will spend several months aligning its optics and calibrating its scientific instruments. Then Webb will begin studying the cosmos in infrared light using its dazzling golden mirror.
What’s huge, grand, and golden?
One of the Webb’s most important and identifiable attributes is its 21-foot-wide (6.5-meter-wide) primary mirror. A reflecting telescope’s primary mirror determines how much light it can collect, and thus how deeply it can see into the universe. Webb’s mirror is nearly three times wider than Hubble’s primary mirror.
You might hear people speak of the Webb’s golden mirror. The mirror is actually multiple mirrors. It’s composed of 18 separate hexagonal-shaped segments made of very strong, ultra-lightweight beryllium, which will unfold after launch. Each of the telescope’s mirror segments is covered in a microscopically thin layer of gold. This gold covering optimizes the mirror segments for reflecting infrared light, which is the primary wavelength of light this telescope will observe.
Webb Telescope has had a long road
The Webb’s development began in 1996, with a $500 million budget. Space scientists and engineers initially planned the launch for 2007. But the project has had considerable delays and cost overruns, and it underwent a major redesign in 2005. Afterward, they planned the launch for March 2020, but the coronavirus pandemic struck and caused major setbacks.
Yet, now, the team has made significant progress. NASA says existing program funding will have the Webb finished within its current $8.8 billion cost cap. In December 2020, the sunshield of a fully assembled James Webb Space Telescope successfully completed its own final tests, including a complete unfolding, just as the telescope will need to do once in space.
Formerly known as the Next Generation Space Telescope, scientists renamed the Webb in September 2002 after James Webb, who was an esteemed former NASA administrator.
NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency are partnering on the Webb. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the development effort, while Northrop Grumman serves as the project’s main industrial partner.
As it has for the Hubble Space Telescope, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore will be operating the Webb telescope after launch.
Technologies advance
As you would expect, the capabilities of the Webb extend beyond those of the Hubble Space Telescope. NASA likes to say that the Webb is not a replacement for Hubble, but rather a successor. The two telescopes will collaborate side by side for a while, with a planned overlap.
The Webb will observe farther into the infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum than Hubble. It’ll go even deeper into space than Hubble, and thus it’ll look farther into the past. It’ll be able to peer inside stellar dust clouds where stars and star systems form. Thaddeus Cesari, a communications specialist for the mission, wrote: "In addition to the groundbreaking science expected from it after launch, Webb has required an improvement in the testing infrastructure and processes involved in validating large complex spacecraft for a life in space … Lessons learned from previous space telescope development were invested into Webb, and future space telescopes will be built upon the same collective knowledge."
Thousands of scientists, engineers, and technicians contributed to build, test, and integrate Webb. In total, 258 companies, agencies, and universities participated: 142 from the United States, 104 from 12 European nations, and 12 from Canada.
Bottom line: The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s most complex infrared telescope. On August 26, 2021, ESA said the telescope has finished its testing and is being prepared for shipment to its launch site at the European Spaceport located near Kourou, French Guiana, on the northeastern coast of South America.
Via ESA
earthsky.org/space/james-webb-telescope-hubble-successor-to-launch/?utm_source=EarthSky+News&utm_campaign=c53e223418-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_02_02_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c643945d79-c53e223418-394368745