After several days of tension, it is official: The James Webb has deployed its main sensors without failures

On By Garmin Philip

It is the greatest work of human engineering ever carried out in terms of space observation and is on a mission to travel millions of kilometers in space to help us understand the origin of the universe. Now we are closer to achieving it.

If you are one of those who have been under tension for several days due to the James Webb probe / telescope, we have good news for you: the gold-coated primary mirror has been successfully deployed. The mission now has only the rudimentary evidence left.

The deployment of the sunshade, necessary to maintain cooling, was successfully completed last week as the spacecraft headed to its final destination, an orbit around the second Lagrange point 1.5 million km from Earth.

The segmented primary mirror is 6.5 meters in diameter and consists of 18 gold-plated mirror segments. Folded to fit the fairing of the Ariane 5 rocket that launched it, the first panel was deployed on January 7 and the second was set in place on January 8.

The unfolded mirror is the largest ever launched into space. And it is quite an engineering feat. Although it was extensively tested prior to launch, any issues the team had during the space deployment could have resulted in an abrupt mission halt.

Unlike Hubble, the other space telescope that has been working for almost 20 years, there is currently no way for the astronauts to reach the Jame Webb, so any failure is considered fatal.

BBC Radio 5 has interviewed some of the NASA scientists working on relevant projects within the space agency. One question consisted of evaluating positively or negatively five science fiction movies or sagas from the point of view of a NASA scientist.

Still months of work remain before collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA), NASA and the Canadian Space Agency can begin observations.

And for it another ignition will be needed (what consumes fuel) and you have to move 18 segments of the primary mirror to align the optics. And to that add that you also have to calibrate the scientific instruments.

The history of NASA provides many reports but rarely does it speak of the great contribution they have made to the improvement of life on Earth.

Movement of individual mirror segments out of their launch configuration is expected to complete approximately 27 days after launch (It was launched on December 24, 2021). +

A day and a half later, James Webb will complete its insertion into a HALO orbit around L2. It will take a few weeks for the instruments to cool down in the shade of the parasol and the remaining five months will be dedicated to calibration. So there is still a way to go.

Reference-computerhoy.com