On December 28th, on December 26th, US Eastern Time, the James Webb Space Telescope under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) successfully deployed its antenna, which is about a day away from its successful lift-off. Last Saturday, the Webb Space Telescope was successfully launched from Kuru, French Guiana on the Ariane 5 rocket. This time, the Webb Space Telescope deployed a gimbal antenna assembly, which also includes a high-data-rate butterfly antenna, which is used to transmit the telescope’s observations of the early universe back to the earth.
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Picture: NASA announced the successful deployment of the antenna for the Webb Space Telescope. The circle in the picture shows the antenna assembly of the telescope
NASA officials said that this antenna will be used to send scientific data from the observatory, at least 28.6GB each time, twice a day. “The mission team has now launched and tested the movement of the antenna assembly. The entire process took about an hour.”
The US$10 billion Webb Space Telescope is the largest and most powerful space telescope in history, designed to study the earliest stars in the universe and other cosmic mysteries.
In order to successfully carry out the deep-space observation mission, it will take a month before and after the launch of the Webb Space Telescope to make sufficient preparations. The Webb Space Telescope is currently undergoing a 29-day space journey to the L2 Lagrange point 1.6 million kilometers from the earth.
According to NASA’s latest news, in addition to antenna deployment and testing, the Webb Space Telescope’s flight controller also activated the telescope’s temperature sensor and strain gauge for the first time. These instruments will allow flight controllers to monitor the temperature and structural system status of the Webb Space Telescope in the coming days.
For scientists and engineers performing missions, accurate detection of the temperature and structural load of the Webb telescope is the key, because for this new space telescope, the most challenging task is how to deploy the huge sunshade.
As an infrared observatory, the prerequisite for the normal operation of the Webb Space Telescope is to maintain a low temperature state. In order to do this, the Webb Space Telescope will deploy a multi-layer sunshade the size of a tennis court in the first 8 days after launch. The first step in deploying the sunshade is expected to begin on December 28, Eastern Time.
The next step for the Webb Space Telescope will be the second engine midway correction ignition, aimed at adjusting the maneuvering direction of the telescope towards the L2 Lagrangian point. This is the second of the three planned engine ignitions and is expected to be completed later on December 27, Eastern Time.
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