The monolithic abstraction telescope, which launched connected Christmas Day, is successful the process of deploying its sunshield. If thing goes wrong, it could endanger the full mission
Space 4 January 2022By Alex Wilkins
A last glimpse of the James Webb Space Telescope Arianespace, ESA, NASA, CSA, CNES
After a nail-biting motorboat connected Christmas Day, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has begun its ngo to representation the commencement of the universe.
JWST blasted disconnected from French Guiana astatine 12:20 GMT connected 25 December connected apical of an Ariane 5 rocket, folded into a compact cuboid. Around 27 minutes later, it separated from the rocket and deployed its star array, which powers its propulsion and connection systems, arsenic good arsenic technological instruments.
Its adjacent large manoeuvres were 2 course-correction burns, firing rocket thrusters to nudge JWST towards its close orbit astir the sun, astatine a gravitationally unchangeable determination called L2 astir 1.5 cardinal kilometres from Earth.
The 2 burns utilized little substance than anticipated acknowledgment to the accuracy of the Ariane 5 rocket, which means the JWST volition person capable propellant to past “significantly” longer than its expected 10-year cognition time, according to NASA engineers. Unlike its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, the JWST volition beryllium excessively acold distant to service, truthful immoderate leftover substance is simply a bonus.
On 3 January, JWST operators began the spacecraft’s astir captious manoeuvre – the unfolding and tensioning of its sunshield, which protects the telescope’s delicate instruments from the sun’s almighty radiation.
The shield is made up of 5 layers of a lightweight thermal worldly called Kapton and is arsenic wide arsenic a tennis court. Deploying it is simply a multistep process involving much than 140 merchandise mechanisms. If these don’t execute correctly, the full ngo could beryllium successful danger, but NASA engineers are assured of occurrence aft galore rehearsals connected the ground.
“I don’t expect immoderate drama,” said JWST task manager Bill Ochs during a press league connected 3 January. “The champion happening for operations is ‘boring’. And that’s what we expect implicit the adjacent 3 days – to beryllium boring.”
As this nonfiction was published, the archetypal 3 layers had been deployed and tightened and the remainder of the sunshield is expected to beryllium tensioned today. However, the series could instrumentality longer depending connected the information JWST’s engineers person connected the ground.
As good arsenic planned manoeuvres, NASA engineers person had to accommodate to changing conditions aboard JWST, similar fine-tuning its powerfulness systems and accounting for higher than expected temperatures wrong the sunshield’s motors owed to incidental sunlight.
“We’ve had a week to spot however the observatory really behaves successful space. It’s not uncommon to larn definite characteristics of your spacecraft erstwhile you’re successful flight,” said Mike Menzel astatine NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
Once the sunshield is successful place, the adjacent large task is the deployment of the telescope’s mirrors. First a secondary reflector volition beryllium extended retired successful beforehand of the superior mirrors connected 7 January, and past the 6.5-metre-wide superior mirrors volition beryllium unfolded connected 8 and 9 January.
After the mirrors are afloat deployed, JWST volition proceed connected to L2 by the extremity of January, if each goes according to plan. The scope volition past fine-tune its instruments and systems for an other 5 months earlier being acceptable to representation the primordial universe.
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