After thirty years of design, the James Webb Space Telescope is ready to go into orbit. The successor of NASA’s premier space telescope, the Hubble, will take our space exploration capabilities to the next level. The telescope has the amazing capability to see the universe’s very first galaxies.
Since its beginning, the James Webb Space Telescope has involved thousands of scientists and engineers all over the world. But all this work raises the question; what’s so important for creating a telescope that can see the universe’s first galaxies. The telescope will hunt for potential life in the atmosphere of nearby alien planets. It has the potential to spot a fly from over a million miles away!
Before the Hubble telescope launched in 1990, we didn’t know how old our universe was. The Hubble telescope has been absolutely revolutionary in changing the way we understand the universe. We are missing a key piece of the puzzle, i.e. how galaxies have started. The James Webb Telescope will help us gain fresh perspectives on distant celestial objects, including those that died out long ago.
Creative Design Team
“It will help us predict what will happen to these stars and galaxies in our universe, further on, and what will happen at the end,” said Amy Lo, Ph.D., Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems. During the research and development phase of these type of projects, when trying to explain the nuts and bolts of this equipment, researchers would grab whatever is available to explain key concepts. Amy had the brilliant idea of putting together an example model made of Lego. There is even an official Lego ideas page dedicated to the project by other fans of the project.
The James Webb will use infrared to see the furthest reaches of our universe. It will feature a 6.5 meter (21 ft) diameter primary mirror made from gold-plated beryllium. A large sun shield will keep four science instruments and its mirror below 50°K (−223°C; −370 °F.) They will locate James Webb near our Earth-Sun L2 point.
Get Ready For Liftoff
The launch date originally set to be 2007, now set for early 2021 due to thorough testing. With so many things that could happen, engineers had to make sure that nothing can go wrong because once the telescope is in space there is no way to fix it.
Engineers addressed several design challenges. First off, the mirror design was bigger than anything previously launched into space, so some mirrors needed to fold back during launch. This means that the mirrors also need to fold back into position once in orbit. Each of the hexagonal mirrors has individual control. There is also the weight; it is the heaviest object sent to space to date. The complex foldable sun shield, which will keep the telescope’s instruments cool during operation, also needs to expand flawlessly once in space.
It’s better to address technical issues here on earth because they cannot fix the telescope when it is over 1.5 million km (930,000 mi) away from us. The team will also put the observatory through additional environmental and deployment testing before the launch.
A Giant Leap Forward
“This is an exciting time, all of Webb’s parts finally got together into a single observatory for the very first time,” Gregory Robinson, the Webb program director at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., said in the same statement. “Our Engineering team has taken a huge step forward, and soon we will see incredible new views of our amazing universe.”
They completed the James Webb telescope; they are just making sure everything works the way it should. Hubble was already a wonder, but the James Webb is a serious step up.
