‘We’re at an incredible height’: Scientists use the James Webb Space Telescope on the moon as the observatory opens
From launch on Christmas Day through activism through Eastern Orthodox, multicultural holidays James Webb . Space Telescope The team had much to celebrate this holiday season after two weeks of work on deploying the complex telescope.
The last webb open its giant mirror Saturday (January 8) marks the end of the most complex telescope deployment ever carried out in space. All the problems that arise behind the observatory Released on December 25th Project director Bill Ochs said during a news conference from Webb’s mission control center at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.
“Everybody is doing brilliantly,” Ochs said Saturday. “I think everyone’s super excited at this point. I don’t think there’s been a point over the past two weeks – not even the pre-launch period, until the launch. [the] launch site – where anyone gets frustrated…but aside from that, we’re at an amazingly high right now. “
Live updates: NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Mission
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Congratulations, @NASAWebb! You are fully deployed! 🥳 Stay tuned in the coming months as the space telescope reaches its Lagrange 2 destination and prepares to #UnfoldTheUniverse: pic.twitter.com/qg6jmVRCsHJanuary 8, 2022
NASA has estimated the telescope must pass 50 major launch events, which includes 178 release mechanisms that must all work perfectly for the telescope’s ultimate success. Those events went smoothly.
The deployment was certainly a celebratory moment at Goddard, as the control team filmed by NASA Television during Saturday’s deployment cheered and carefully exchanged high skills (between coronavirus protocols due to ongoing pandemic) after hearing of a “telescope deployed in orbit.”
However, the work is not done yet as the telescope is still on its way to its “parking point” at Earth-sun’s Lagrange Point 2 (L2) is about 930,000 miles (1.5 million km) from our planet. Webb still needs to test its tools and sort out its mirrors, among other major milestones in the coming weeks.
It will take at least five months to carefully calibrate and align the 18 individual hexagonal mirrors that make up Webb’s gilded main mirror, which is 21.3 feet (6.5 meters) wide. Only then will the observatory be ready to take the first images of deep space.
“It’s not downhill from here. It’s all a level playing field,” Ochs said of the difficulty of the task in the coming weeks. But the mirror, with all its single failures, was a significant obstacle for the team to successfully overcome, he noted.
“That was probably the most risky part of the mission,” he said of the clone deployment. “[But] that doesn’t mean all of our risk goes away, and it doesn’t mean we lose intensity when it comes to maintaining discipline for the task. “
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https://www.space.com/james-webb-space-telescope-team-incredible-high ‘We’re at an incredible height’: Scientists use the James Webb Space Telescope on the moon as the observatory opens
