Engineers who activated the James Webb Space Telescope on Sunday decided to postpone tightening the observatory’s critical solar canopy to allow more time to verify energy system performance and general behavior now that several major deployments have been completed.
“There’s nothing we can learn from simulations on Earth as well as analyzing the observatory while it’s in operation,” Bill Ochs, director of the Web project, said in a NASA blog on Sunday. “Now is the time… to find out all we can about its core operations. Then we will take the next step.”
NASA does not provide “live” coverage from web publications and has not held a media briefing since the telescope launched on Christmas Day. But a recent blog post says engineers want to describe the telescope’s performance more comprehensively now that it’s finally in space while ensuring the actuators needed to tighten the sunscreen are at the “ideal” temperature before moving on.
No technical details were given, but the two-day protective lift could begin on Monday.
NASA
where Day Launched on Christmas Day, Webb has successfully perfected his path by launching two precision-defense missiles, deploying his critical solar panels, canceling the appearance of the high-gain antenna he will use to relay scientific data back to Earth and expanding the “momentum flap” to counter the pressures of the solar wind. unstable.
It also raised its main mirror and science instruments by about four feet to isolate them from the heat from onboard electronics and other systems.
On Friday, two overlapping arms stretched to either side of the two platforms, tugging and exposing a tennis court-sized web canopy to begin one of the most complex actions in the observatory’s initial activation.
NASA
Consisting of five hair-thin Kapton layers, the canopy was essential to Webb’s goal of capturing the faint glow of the first stars and galaxies to ignite after the Big Bang was born in the universe nearly 14 billion years ago.
To record this ancient radiation, which has now been extended to the infrared by the expansion of space itself, Webb had to be cooled to 50 degrees from absolute zero, or roughly minus 400 degrees Fahrenheit. The light and heat shields needed to do this, folded to launch like a parachute skydiving, are in the process of being extracted.
Two platforms holding up the sun’s canopy were deployed and locked in place on Tuesday, one on either side of Webb’s 21.3-foot main mirror. On Thursday, he ordered protective covers to roll up each pallet, exposing the still folded canopy membrane into space.
The actual deployment began on Friday when the two arms staggered at right angles to the platform began to stretch, one after the other, slowly pulling the sides of the shield and exposing the membrane in the process.
The work started later than expected to give engineers time to ensure that the 107 membrane-holding devices, which are used to hold the folded lining in place during launch, function, as required.
They did, and with both booms extended to give the sun canopy an iconic kite-like shape, the five tiers now had to be pulled taut with motor-powered cables running through dozens of pulleys. Tightening is required to create gaps between each layer, leaving room for excess heat to flow out to the sides.
With boom extension work taking longer than expected, the task manager suspended the tension on Saturday to give the team a chance to catch their collective breath. Another delay was requested on Sunday, in part to ensure that the motor needed to extract the entire shade is at the required temperature.
“We’ve spent 20 years in the field with Webb, designing, developing and testing,” said Mike Menzel, Webb’s principal systems engineer. “We spent a week seeing how observatories actually behave in space. It is not uncommon for you to learn certain characteristics of your spaceship once you fly. That’s what we’re doing right now.”
“So far, our main deployment is going as smoothly as we hoped. But we want to take our time and understand all we can about the observatory before moving forward.”
