James Webb Space Telescope has arrived at its new home – an orbit almost a million miles from Earth
- Reference: 1643099707
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/01/25/james_webb_space_telescope/
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Mission control sent instructions to fire the telescope's thrusters at 1400 EST (1900 UTC) on Monday. The small boost increased its speed by about 3.6 miles per hour to send it to L2, where it will orbit the Sun in line with Earth for the foreseeable future. It takes about 180 days to complete an L2 orbit, Amber Straughn, deputy project scientist for Webb Science Communications at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said during a live [1]briefing .
"Webb, welcome home!" [2]blurted NASA's Administrator Bill Nelson. "Congratulations to the team for all of their hard work ensuring Webb's safe arrival at L2 today. We're one step closer to uncovering the mysteries of the universe. And I can't wait to see Webb's first new views of the universe this summer."
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Astronomers have waited a quarter of a century for the JWST to come into fruition since development began in 1996. NASA collaborated with ESA and Canada's space agency for years to plan, design, and build the spacecraft, figure out its mission, and blow through a whopping $10bn in funding.
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Although the JWST has finally reached L2 after it was launched on December 25, it still needs to complete a number of tasks before it can begin observing some of the most distant objects in the universe. NASA is waiting for its instruments to cool down to a low enough temperature before they can operate most efficiently.
The [6]primary mirror and secondary was unfurled this month, as well as the telescope's 21.197 m x 14.162 m (69.5 ft x 46.5 ft) sun shield.
[7]Almost there: James Webb Space Telescope frees its mirrors and prepares for insertion
[8]The James Webb Space Telescope has only gone and deployed its primary mirror
[9]A moment of tension as the James Webb Space Telescope stretches sunshield on way to L2 destination
[10]Confirmed: James Webb Space Telescope team plans launch for this Xmas Eve after data cable fix
"During the past month, JWST has achieved amazing success and is a tribute to all the folks who spent many years and even decades to ensure mission success," Bill Ochs, Webb project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said in a statement. "We are now on the verge of aligning the mirrors, instrument activation and commissioning, and the start of wondrous and astonishing discoveries."
The alignment and calibration to get all 18 mirror panels to fit perfectly together with no gaps is a painstaking process that will take months to complete, Scarlin Hernandez, a Webb Flight Systems Engineer at the Space Telescope Science Institute, explained in the briefing. Hundreds of motors have to nudge the hefty mirrors by distances as small as a few nanometres to create the best possible surface to reflect infrared light into the telescope's cameras.
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The JWST is expected to operate for about 20 years, NASA said. It will give astronomers the deepest and widest view of the observable universe yet, allowing them to study the first stars and galaxies that formed just a few hundred-million years after the Big Bang. ®
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[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWklR2PBfQU
[2] https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/01/24/orbital-insertion-burn-a-success-webb-arrives-at-l2/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Ye-YViBF3IdsUlVWQXCRpgAAAJQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Ye-YViBF3IdsUlVWQXCRpgAAAJQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Ye-YViBF3IdsUlVWQXCRpgAAAJQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/10/james_webb_space_telescope
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/21/jwst/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/10/james_webb_space_telescope/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/04/jwst_sunshield/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/16/jwst_launch_slip/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Ye-YViBF3IdsUlVWQXCRpgAAAJQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: thank you
Yeah but Guardian and quality aren't normally used in the same sentence.
Re: thank you
They probably spelled it 'qualty'.
Partnership
Partnership
NASA, ESA and CSA have collaborated on the telescope since 1996. ESA's participation in construction and launch was approved by its members in 2003 and an agreement was signed between ESA and NASA in 2007. In exchange for full partnership, representation and access to the observatory for its astronomers, ESA is providing the NIRSpec instrument, the Optical Bench Assembly of the MIRI instrument, an Ariane 5 ECA launcher, and manpower to support operations.[116][167] The CSA will provide the Fine Guidance Sensor and the Near-Infrared Imager Slitless Spectrograph plus manpower to support operations.[168]
Several thousand scientists, engineers, and technicians spanning 15 countries have contributed to the build, test and integration of the JWST.[169] A total of 258 companies, government agencies, and academic institutions are participating in the pre-launch project; 142 from the United States, 104 from 12 European countries, and 12 from Canada.[169] Other countries as NASA partners, such as Australia, have or will be involved in post-launch operation.
Re: Partnership
Yes, not quite NASA's with knowledge and engineering from so many others.
I am a little confused about the 180 orbit time, what is JWST orbiting in thatvtime if it is in lockstep with the Earth around the sun ( the whole point of a Lagrange position).
Re: Partnership
It orbits the L2 point every 180 days. I was confused too!
Re: Partnership
There’s a pretty good video here that explains amongst other things, the position, it’s orbit and why, in layman’s terms too!
https://youtu.be/4P8fKd0IVOs
Re: Partnership
Don't forget Arianespace providing a rocket which put JWST on it's correct vector so precisely, that they've [1]saved them five years worth of manoeuvring fuel .
[1] https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2021/12/29/nasa-says-webbs-excess-fuel-likely-to-extend-its-lifetime-expectations/
For the planners and engineers involved:
(if you turn it round and look backwards, you might be able to see it)
Surely the L2 point from the Earth takes exactly a year to orbit the sun?
Aha, they mean the telescope completes its tiny orbit of the L2 point every 180 days. "Utilizing thrust every three weeks or so from small rocket engines aboard Webb will keep it orbiting L2, looping around it in a halo orbit once every six months." [1]https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/01/21/webbs-journey-to-l2-is-nearly-complete/
[1] https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2022/01/21/webbs-journey-to-l2-is-nearly-complete/
It doesn't matter how you look at this, it's a pretty damned good bit of work by some very clever people.
Spend 10 years building something that's several metres tall, sit it on top of a "bomb waiting to happen", sling it into space, let it hurtle along at ~10 KM/s (gradually slowing) for around a million miles, and it arrives on time and is exactly where it's supposed to be. No options to retry it or "have another go", and no-one forgot to remove that last cable-tie.
Good design and proper planning really is worth the effort.
It doesn't matter how you look at this, it's a pretty damned good bit of work by some very clever people.
As long as you overlook that "fifteen years late and twenty times over budget" business, which was in large part due to those very clever people screwing up on a regular basis. Even when it was ready to go launch was delayed because of a mis-wired plug.
Are you for real?
I guess you must be that unique little flower that was able to walk and talk from the moment of birth.
...and "blow" through a "whopping" $10bn in funding
Come on Reg, that's a little derogatory for a great achievement, isn't it? $10bn over 25 years for discovering the secrets of the universe is great value for money. In 2008 the UK gov alone blew $850bn in 3 days and what did we discover in the 13 years since? That the richest benefitted the most. I'll take the $10bn Webb telescope any day.
Re: ...and "blow" through a "whopping" $10bn in funding
Coming the week after Microsoft spent nearly $70bn to research the question "How many more years can we keep cranking out new versions of Call of Duty?" the Webb telescope looks like a bit of a bargain.
(Yes I know Microsoft are buying more than that. "How many more years can we keep milking World of Warcraft?", for example.)
Absolutely fantastic, I'm so pleased it's going to plan. It's going to feed that hunger for knowledge for decades. I can't wait to see some of the new imagery.
Fantastic
Well done to everyone involved, an amazing piece of engineering
I do so hope that the bod responsible within the final payload assembly team remembered, you know, to . . . remove the lens cap!
thank you
for a decent article on this landmark.
Unlike the UK "quality press". Who start by telling us it's the largest telescope ever (no qualification like space-borne) and go downhill from there. I'm look at you, The Guardian.