The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) crew has successfully raised a giant solar shield, the critical piece of equipment that keeps the telescope at the lowest possible temperature for its entire life. The new achievement closes one of the most elaborate missions in the history of engineering, allowing James Webb glasses not to turn into the most expensive space junk ever made by man.
“This is truly a great moment,” said Bill Ochs, JSWT project manager. “I want to congratulate the whole team. There’s still a lot of work ahead but it’s very, very important to raise the sunshade“.
James Webb Space Telescope back on Earth, last year.
The James Webb Space Telescope took off on December 25, marking a successful 25-year journey in planning, assembling and completing the project. JSWT is compared to a “time machine”, allowing science to see billions of years ago, almost a few hundred million years old, the Big Bang event, when star systems were born. Since the light emitted by these objects has traveled so far since their appearance, we need an instrument that can reach them to study them.
To explore the first chapter of the book Universe, JWST has to go through a risky “opening” phase. The size of the JWST glass when unfolded was so large, NASA had to fold it like a work of origami art and fit it into the hold of the Ariane 5 rocket.
When the flight fails, the rocket system in turn, the compartment will separate in turn. When the JWST glass leaves the capsule, it will fly to a predetermined point and here, the team of ground engineers conducts the dismantling operation, returning the glass to its original state.
One of the important parts of JWST is the solar panel. JSWT specializes in the study of infrared light, a type of invisible light that is directly related to heat. To avoid the heat from the Sun as well as the Earth affecting the research process, scientists have to cover the telescope with curtains, place the entire instrument in a temperature condition of -223 degrees Celsius.
When unfolded, the sunshade will be about the size of a tennis court.
After more than a week, the solar shield has just completed the process of “unwinding”, more than the expected time due to NASA resting for the New Year and analyzing the data sent back by the spacecraft carrying the glass. In addition, a few problems related to temperature measurement and other equipment caused the “sail” process to malfunction.
“We are still in the ‘finding’ stage of the telescope“, Mr. Ochs said at a press conference not long ago. “Satellites in orbit always behave a little differently in the air than they do on the ground“.
The first problem lies with JWST’s solar array, the device that absorbs light from the central star of the Solar System for the telescope to operate. Initial manufacturer settings resulted in lower-than-expected power output, but Northrop Grumman, the company responsible for the development and manufacture of the James Webb telescope, has tweaked the instrument to make it work. effective in extraterrestrial environments. At the present time, JWST has received the necessary power.
Artist depicts JWST glass in space.
Several other issues related to the solar panel tensioning motor have also been fixed. When they overheated, the opticians rotated the device to keep it out of the sun. The motor has now completed its job.
The tragedy is not over, the James Webb Space Telescope still has to go through a risky opening process. The opening operations are expected to be completed within a week, and like all previous related processes, the opening steps should be error free.
The day JWST goes into operation will also be the day the time machine opens the eyes of mankind. We can only wait and hope it works out.
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