NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, poised to launch, will open a new window on the cosmos
NASA’s long-delayed James Webb Space Telescope, a $10 billion marvel of engineering and scientific ambition, is finally poised to rocket into deep space from a launchpad in French Guiana, on the northeast shoulder of South America. What happens in the following days and weeks will either change our understanding of the universe or deliver a crushing blow to NASA and the global astronomical community.
The Webb must cruise for 29 days to a unique orbit around the sun that keeps it roughly 1 million miles from Earth, four times the distance to the moon. At launch, it will be folded upon itself, a shrouded package inside the cone of the European Space Agency’s Ariane 5 rocket. After it escapes Earth’s gravity, it must begin opening up, blossoming into a functioning telescope.
That starts with the deployment of the solar panels to make the whole thing work. Next comes the unfurling of a tennis-court-size expanse of multilayered foil — the sun shield, akin to a giant umbrella, ideally more reliable than what you would get from a drugstore.
Then, the telescope must deploy 18 hexagonal, gold-covered, beryllium mirrors, which collectively act as a light bucket 21 feet across, designed to capture ancient light emitted more than 13 billion years ago as the embryonic universe was still learning how to create stars and galaxies.
What could go wrong?
NASA actually has an answer to that question: This mission is vulnerable to, and therefore must avoid, 344 potential “single-point failures,” according to an independent review board.
https://wapo.st/3H94BJ4
Great article with great graphics, link should not be behind a paywall.
Keeping my fingers crossed that the launch and deployment are successful.
= new reply since forum marked as read
I do find it interesting this delayed, extremely expensive and complex space probe is named after Mr Webb, whose successful philosophy in regards to running NASA was ' Faster, Better, Cheaper,"
I will be watching intently as the mission unfolds, and will be sacrificing and praying daily to Newton, the 1st god of Physics, that all goes well. (I'll be sacrificing calories - cutting out most chocolates from my diet.)
One mistake in the rocket or in the traveling direction of the telescope and we will have one huge paper weight in space. 