Tracking the James Webb Telescope

[rockytopva]

Tracking the 10 billion dollar James Webb Space Telescope

December 25th - Liftoff
Deployed- spacecraft appendages (solar arrays, high gain antenna)
Working on - Unfolding sunshield
Hoping - Tower and mirrors deploy correctly

A lot can go wrong! Live from the James Webb site...

Where Is Webb? NASA/Webb

 

[d taylor]

Now that is funny, their little webpage.

 

[Tinker Grey]

Now that is funny, their little webpage.

Go away.

 

[durangodawood]

Prior to this, the spacecraft will have been maneuvered to provide warmer temperatures on the forward UPS and various heaters have been activitated to warm key deployment components.

So many things to think about in space.

 

[rockytopva]

The secondary mirror is attached to the three large secondary support structures, fully deployed in the last image below, and I imagine will have to end up at an exact point. I am thinking the secondary mirror will be moveable and will have to be calibrated for the telescope to see images clearly. The Hubble Space telescope had calibration issues that required a space shuttle service mission. In this case, they are too far away.

 

[Green Sun]

The secondary mirror is attached to the three large secondary support structures, fully deployed in the last image below, and I imagine will have to end up at an exact point. I am thinking the secondary mirror will be moveable and will have to be calibrated for the telescope to see images clearly. The Hubble Space telescope had calibration issues that required a space shuttle service mission. In this case, they are too far away.

Not only can the secondary mirror be moved, but the primary mirror's segments and the secondary mirror are all deformable mirrors and can all be precisely adjusted to get the telescope into focus.

Once in space, getting these mirrors to focus correctly on faraway galaxies is another challenge. Actuators, or tiny mechanical motors, provide the answer to achieving a single perfect focus. The primary mirror segments and secondary mirror are moved by six actuators that are attached to the back of each mirror piece. The primary mirror segments also have an additional actuator at its center that adjusts its curvature. The telescope's tertiary mirror remains stationary.

Lee Feinberg, Webb Optical Telescope Element Manager at NASA Goddard explains, "Aligning the primary mirror segments as though they are a single large mirror means each mirror is aligned to 1/10,000th the thickness of a human hair. What's even more amazing is that the engineers and scientists working on the Webb telescope literally had to invent how to do this."

NASA has some more detail on the mirrors here: Mirrors Webb/NASA

 

[rockytopva]

Temperature readings just became available!

Where Is Webb? NASA/Webb

 

[Desk trauma]

As it turns out they are way head of schedule and a first image has already been transmitted:

Sorry.

 

[sjastro]

Temperature readings just became available!

Where Is Webb? NASA/Webb

How archaic, temperature readings in Fahrenheit, imperial units being used.

 

[rockytopva]

How archaic, temperature readings in Fahrenheit, imperial units being used.

There is an option to switch to metric. Look for the Where is Webb? ---> About this page ---> English <> Metric at the top of the page.

 

[sjastro]

There is an option to switch to metric. Look for the Where is Webb? ---> About this page ---> English <> Metric at the top of the page.

My faith in humanity has been restored.

 

[durangodawood]

How archaic, temperature readings in Fahrenheit, imperial units being used.

Dont alienate the American tax payer!

 

[rockytopva]

Dont alienate the American tax payer!

I would say this project will end up costing $75 per US tax payer, so it is a big deal. I am in hopes that we will get our moneys worth in good science!

At 5 days into the mission they are currently unrolling membrane covers.

Where Is Webb? NASA/Webb

 

[sjastro]

Dont alienate the American tax payer!

Interesting you should mention tax payer money.
NASA's $125 million Mars Climate Orbiter went down the drain as Lockheed Martin the builder of the orbiter used imperial units to calculate the acceleration data which NASA mistook as based on metric units.
As a result NASA's computed orbital insertion brought it too close to Mars resulting in either the orbiter crashing into the surface or skipping off the atmosphere into an orbit around the Sun.
Mars Probe Lost Due to Simple Math Error

 

[ruthiesea]

Now that is funny, their little webpage.

“Teach thy tongue to say 'I do not know,' and thou shalt progress.” ~ Moses Ben Maimon

 

[Green Sun]

The Port Mid-Boom for the sunshield was successfully deployed today, after a small delay where NASA had to double-check their information to determine if the cover successfully deployed - The first real hiccup, but thankfully nothing went wrong.

The Webb mission operations team has extended the first of the sunshield’s two “arms” – the port (left side) mid-boom.

The critical step of the port mid-boom deployment was scheduled to begin earlier in the day. However, the team paused work to confirm that the sunshield cover had fully rolled up as the final preparatory step before the mid-boom deployment.

Switches that should have indicated that the cover rolled up did not trigger when they were supposed to. However, secondary and tertiary sources offered confirmation that it had. Temperature data seemed to show that the sunshield cover unrolled to block sunlight from a sensor, and gyroscope sensors indicated motion consistent with the sunshield cover release devices being activated.

After analysis, mission management decided to move forward with the regularly planned deployment sequence. The deployment of the five telescoping segments of the motor-driven mid-boom began around 1:30 p.m. EST, and the arm extended smoothly until it reached full deployment at 4:49 p.m.

As Webb’s deployment steps are all human-controlled, the schedule for deployments could continue to change – as today’s activities showed. Shortly before 6:30 p.m., the team decided to proceed with deploying the starboard mid-boom tonight, and the initial steps of that deployment began at 6:31 p.m.

https://twitter.com/NASAWebb/status/1477074540081692680

 

[Subduction Zone]

The first image from inside the James Webb space telescope:

 

[rockytopva]

Flight controllers in Maryland had to reset Webb's solar panel to draw more power. “Everything is hunky-dory and doing well now.” Ochs expects the tightening of the sunshield to be drama-free.

"The best thing for operations is boring, and that's what we anticipate over the next three days, is to be boring," he told reporters in a teleconference. Next event is the unfolding of the mirrors.
https://phys.org/news/2022-01-nasa-space-telescope-hunky-dory-problems.html

 

[Ophiolite]

My faith in humanity has been restored.

If only it were that easy.

 

[rockytopva]

The Secondary Mirror is fully deployed and latched...

Where Is Webb? NASA/Webb