- Jonathan Amos
- BBC Science Correspondent
Image source,The James Webb Space Telescope
According to official sources, the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope is expected to be released in mid-December.
The James Webb Space Telescope (James Webb Space Telescope, abbreviated as JWST) has cost $10 billion to develop and will be one of the most ambitious scientific explorations of the 21st century.
Its mission is to record the first luminous star in the universe with images.
Weber will be sent into space orbit by an Aryan rocket in French Guiana. Engineers there began assembling the components of the carrier last weekend.
The 30-meter-high core section of the Aryan rocket was raised upright to install side thrusters. The upper stage of the rocket that is responsible for propelling the power after the launch of Weber will be installed within a few days.
JWST itself is likely to be installed on the top of the rocket a week before liftoff on December 18.
Image source,NASA / ESA, / H.Teplitz et al
The farthest galaxies that Weber can see are expected to include some of the earliest stars.
The Kourou Spaceport was given a mission to send the successor of the Hubble Telescope to space, and it was full of pride.
“This is a once-in-a-generation launch,” Daniel De Chambure, head of launch systems at the European Space Agency, told the BBC.
The new telescope was transported by ship from a factory in California to French Guiana in October. The aerospace companies Northrop Grumman and NASA previously supervised its final operation in California. Assembly.
The core stage of the Aryan Rockets was erected last Saturday.
As soon as we got off the ship, JWST accepted a detailed inspection to confirm that there was no damage during transportation.
“We checked all parts, and I was able to report that James Webb was in perfect condition,” said Begoña Vila, NASA’s equipment systems engineer.
In the clean room of the Kuru Center, the telescope is placed upright. It was not in a working state, but was folded so that it could fit into the nose cone of the Aryan Rocket. Even so, it is still much higher than the technicians who take care of it.
They continue to maintain a high degree of cleanliness and keep the environment around Webber spotless. The two-degree filter wall keeps the telescope away from dust. The staff in protective clothing kept mopping the floor and cleaning the surface of the support equipment to further ensure that the 6.5-meter-wide mirror gold-plated element of the Webb telescope would not be contaminated.
Everything is to allow Webber to enter the launch device in perfect condition.
The task on Tuesday (November 9) is for the preparatory team to install JWST into the launch adapter. This is a ring that holds it to the top of the rocket.
This procedure will be guided by a laser. Then the remaining part is to provide fuel to Webber and integrate it with the upper stage of the Aryan rocket through an adapter.
One tricky step is encapsulation. The nose cone of the rocket will drop and cover the telescope. The gap will be very small, especially during the 30-minute lift-off process, the entire structure will vibrate back and forth.
“In terms of data, we are only 6 to 8 inches (15-20 cm) away from the edge of the fairing, but under the launch load, this distance will become within 3.5 inches (9 cm). This is very close, so we always Some parts need to be very precise,” said Mark Voyton, NASA’s launch site director.
The Weber seen in the clean room is a very shocking structure.
It gleams with gold and silver, and the silver color is because of the insulating layer. The slightly purple part comes from the silicon added to increase reflection.
But what really takes your breath away is its size, even when it is folded up before launch. When it enters space orbit, the telescope after deployment will be about the size of a tennis court.
English video: Jean-Luc Voyer, the launch mission director of the Kuru Center, previews Weber’s countdown to launch.
JWST’s mirrors and cutting-edge equipment are deployed in order to be able to see the first shining stars in the universe. This scenario theoretically occurred about 200 million years after the Big Bang (about 13.5 billion years ago).
This telescope will also be able to distinguish the atmospheres of many new stars that are constantly being discovered outside the solar system, and to analyze their gases to find the possibility of life.
The cost of this project is already very large, and most of the expenditure is borne by NASA. But for Europe, the investment is also huge-but Peter Jensen, who has been the project manager of the European Space Agency for many years, said it is worth it.
“On the surface, it has many zeros, and Europe spent 700 million euros (600 million pounds; 800 million US dollars) on this task. But when you look at the cost per capita of European residents, it is equivalent to A cup of cheap coffee in a cheap coffee shop, and then drink it over 20 years. And with this little money, we get such a high-tech telescope, which will lead us into a Columbus-style journey to explore an unknown era in the history of the universe .”
Even when folded, the Webb telescope is still huge.
Image source,NASA