Image copyright NASA/Chris Gunn NASA Engineers have completed Assembly of a giant space telescope that will replace the orbital telescope “Hubble”.
Orbital Observatory “James Webb” is undergoing the final phase of testing before its launch in two years in October 2018.
the Telescope is scheduled to launch from the spaceport in French Guiana with the European carrier rocket “Ariane-5″, which identified many design features of the telescope, in particular, the fact that its main mirror is composed of segments.
In the space Goddard center in Maryland, NASA engineers are preparing for a decisive series of tests.
“We’re going to expose the telescope to the strong levels of vibration and noise, that is, to simulate the conditions which will arise at the start, when the noise level will reach 150 decibels,” says scientific project officer John Matera.
“And then we will send the telescope to the center of Johnson in Texas to test its optical parts – we need to make sure that it is normally focused, especially after what happened to Hubble.
Orbital telescope “James Webb”, named after the second head of NASA, is a joint project of NASA, the European space Agency and the Canadian space Agency.
It cost the creators of $ 10 billion. The telescope will have sufficient sensitivity to detect the light of the first stars formed after the birth of our Universe.
With its help, astronomers hope to obtain unique data on the chemical composition of exoplanets orbiting other stars.
the Main telescope mirror diameter of 6.5 meters will consist of 18 sections; the mirror area roughly seven times the mirror area of the Hubble telescope.
the Mirror is so large that it must be folded to fit under the fairing of the launch vehicle at startup.
Wednesday this week, NASA staged a demonstration telescope for journalists.
the Basic works on construction of the new orbital telescope carries the American Corporation Northrop Grumman.
so far, training is going according to plan. Completed Assembly of the reflector and the instrument compartment. The chassis of the Observatory, which will carry the reflector, communications, computers and orientation engines are not yet ready.
the Engineers have yet to install on the chassis of a giant reflector, which will protect the telescope from the effects of solar radiation.
“the Reflector is equal to the area of the tennis court, says Dr. Matera. – It’s ready for installation”.
the Telescope “James Webb” is a flagship project for the space agencies involved in its creation. The launch of the Observatory is associated with a significant risk. After launch, if all goes well, will begin preparations for the astronomical research, which will take six months.
the key focus will be the deployment of the mirror segments and five membrane solar reflector.
Then the telescope will have to undergo a long period of cooling required to ensure that his devices are able to capture weak infrared radiation from the most distant stars of the Universe.
the project Engineers have dubbed this semiannual period: “six months of terror.”
this time, if there are any problems, it will be impossible to send into orbit astronauts, as was done with Hubble. The fact that the telescope “James Webb” will be displayed on a very high orbit with a perigee of 1.5 million km.
Hence, the greater responsibility that falls on the shoulders of the project engineers. According to Dr. Mather, every effort is made to avoid problems in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment