Engineers traced this problem to a software glitch.
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA — The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST or Webb) was launched in December 2021 and has been making scientific observations since July 2022. However, on January 15, JWST’s Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectograph (NIRISS) instrument “delayed communications within the instrument, causing the flight software to shut down,” according to a Jan. 24 statement from the United States Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
NIRISS is currently unusable for science, the statement said. “There is no indication of any harm to the hardware, and the observatory and other instruments are all in good health,” wrote NASA officials. Space, Friday (27/1/2023). As a result the affected science observations will be rescheduled.
NIRISS is a contribution from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), so NASA and CSA personnel are collaborating to solve this problem, the statement noted.
Under normal conditions, NIRISS can operate in four different modes, according to NASA. It can operate as a camera when other JWST instruments are used.
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NIRISS can also analyze light signatures to study the atmospheres of small exoplanets. It can then perform high-contrast imaging and has a customized mode for finding distant galaxies.
NIRISS isn’t the first instrument at JWST to run into problems. In August, the spoke wheels inside the observatory’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) started showing signs of friction. The wheel is only used in one of the four viewing modes while continuing MIRI work in the other three.
By November, engineers had tracked down the cause of the problem and started developing a guide for using the affected mode safely, called the Medium Resolution Spectrometer.
Additionally, in December, the observatory spent two weeks plagued by a glitch that repeatedly sent the telescope into safe mode. The incident disrupted scientific observations.
Engineers traced the issue to a software glitch in the observatory’s attitude control system, which controls the direction the spacecraft is pointing. The Observatory had resumed normal operations since the issue on December 20, according to a NASA statement at the time.
NIRISS’ announcement comes exactly a year after JWST arrived at its outpost, Earth-sun Lagrange point 2, which is located nearly a million miles (1.5 million kilometers) away from Earth on the opposite side of the sun.
