Webb deployment resumes, with continuing success
After a day delay to assess the telescope’s earlier operation in space, engineers yesterday resumed the deployment of the James Webb Space Telescope’s sun shield.
First they began tensioning the shield’s first of five layers, completing that operation in about five and a half hours.
Next the engineers proceeded to tighten layers two and three, completing that task in about three hours.
Today they have begun tightening the last two layers. A live stream of this slow and relatively unexciting process (as long as nothing goes wrong) is available from NASA here.
Based on what has been done so far, it appears that the deployment of the sun shield, considered the most challenging part of Webb’s deployment, is going to complete successfully. While the unfolding and deployment of the mirror still must be done, getting the sun shield deployed eliminates one of the great concerns that has kept both astronomers and engineers awake nights for decades.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
After a day delay to assess the telescope’s earlier operation in space, engineers yesterday resumed the deployment of the James Webb Space Telescope’s sun shield.
First they began tensioning the shield’s first of five layers, completing that operation in about five and a half hours.
Next the engineers proceeded to tighten layers two and three, completing that task in about three hours.
Today they have begun tightening the last two layers. A live stream of this slow and relatively unexciting process (as long as nothing goes wrong) is available from NASA here.
Based on what has been done so far, it appears that the deployment of the sun shield, considered the most challenging part of Webb’s deployment, is going to complete successfully. While the unfolding and deployment of the mirror still must be done, getting the sun shield deployed eliminates one of the great concerns that has kept both astronomers and engineers awake nights for decades.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Real astronomers are always awake at night ;-)
In the realm of space based astronomy, night and day no longer matter. The Observatory is forever in a sea of darkness.
If this thing screws up, is there any way to have a rescue mission to fix it? I am not as up on space as most of you and I have no idea if they can stop this thing before it gets to close to the sun for humans and then resume it towards its target.
Jhon B
No, sadly. The Observatory is on its way to a very distant position, much farther than the Space Station or Hubble.
The eventual destination is in orbit around L2 point, opposite side side of the moon, plus some.
There would be insufficient fuel to stop, even if there was, it would require more fuel to go again. There is much more, like the lack of means to carry out such a repair.
Think of the WST as just another in a long line of largely successful planetary probes like the current fleet of Mars orbiters / rovers, Juno, and the New Horizons Pluto mission. In this case, in addition to conducting cosmological investigations, it will be probing exoplantes, lol. Like its far flung, planet-visiting companions — at least at present — it simply will be too far away to repair, so it has been designed (at great time and expense) to be as robust and resilient as possible. Godspeed, WST.