NASA says its James Webb Space Telescope will go deeper into space than ever before to provide new insights about the early universe and the formation of stars, galaxies and planets, among other things.
But first, the tennis-court-sized sun-orbiting observatory—now set to lift off from French Guiana on Saturday in the nose of a rocket folded like an origami—will have to be revealed properly after launch.
It will not be easy.
According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 50 separate deployment and 178 release mechanisms would be required to open the telescope’s golden mirrors, extend its solar panels and open its tissue-thin sunshield. All should be well, or the largest and most powerful telescope ever sent into space could become a $10 billion pile of space debris.
“The two weeks after launch are nail-biting,” says Amy Low, deputy director of vehicle engineering at the James Webb Space Telescope for Northrop Grumman Corp., in a video published in October. Mike Menzel, NASA’s Webb mission lead systems engineer, says in the video that spotting Webb is “hands-down, the most complex spacecraft activity we’ve ever done.”
Once exposed to the telescope, the thrusters will propel it on its orbital path around the Sun, about 1 million miles from Earth. This should take about two weeks, with the mission team estimating that about five months would be needed to fix the mirror, calibrate the instruments, and cool the telescope down to minus-370 degrees Fahrenheit.
According to NASA, construction of the James Webb Space Telescope began in 2004 and involved 40 million hours of work by thousands of scientists from more than a dozen countries.
Never miss a story! Stay connected and informed with Mint.
download
Our App Now!!
,