Space
NASA To Resume Testing James Webb Telescope
Brooke James
First Posted: Jan 05, 2017 02:26 AM EST
Reports of the Hubble Telescope's discoveries make it easy for everyone to forget its bigger and better brother, the James Webb Space Telescope, which is said to be launched late next year.
Yahoo reported that engineers detected anomalous readings while conducting a "vibration test," which then prompted NASA to put tests on hold until the cause of the response has been determined. Since then, the agency has carried on three low-level vibrations to the telescope, and vibration testing is expected to resume within the month.
These vibration tests are performed to ensure that the spacecraft is strong enough to tolerate hostile conditions that are common in outer space. It also ensures that the hardware functionality is not impaired during launch and landing events.
Paul Geithner, deputy project manager, said, "The Webb telescope is the most dynamically complex test article ever tested at Goddard, so the responses were a bit different than expected." He went on that for this reason, NASA tests its telescopes and crafts "to know how things really are, as opposed to how we think they are."
Astronomers are anticipating the new insights that will hopefully be provided by the 20-year project and be a big step up from the Hubble. CS Monitor noted that so far, it is already impressive, with an engineering feat of being able to fold itself up like origami during its launch before unfurling to its full size over the course of two weeks once it arrives on orbit.
NASA Boasted of the James Webb's capabilities in a statement in 2014, starting with the fact that it is stationed some four times further away than the Moon. It will help detect light from first galaxies, even explore planets around distant stars.
The statement read: "It will study every phase of our universe's history, ranging from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of planetary systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, to the evolution of our own solar system."
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First Posted: Jan 05, 2017 02:26 AM EST
Reports of the Hubble Telescope's discoveries make it easy for everyone to forget its bigger and better brother, the James Webb Space Telescope, which is said to be launched late next year.
Yahoo reported that engineers detected anomalous readings while conducting a "vibration test," which then prompted NASA to put tests on hold until the cause of the response has been determined. Since then, the agency has carried on three low-level vibrations to the telescope, and vibration testing is expected to resume within the month.
These vibration tests are performed to ensure that the spacecraft is strong enough to tolerate hostile conditions that are common in outer space. It also ensures that the hardware functionality is not impaired during launch and landing events.
Paul Geithner, deputy project manager, said, "The Webb telescope is the most dynamically complex test article ever tested at Goddard, so the responses were a bit different than expected." He went on that for this reason, NASA tests its telescopes and crafts "to know how things really are, as opposed to how we think they are."
Astronomers are anticipating the new insights that will hopefully be provided by the 20-year project and be a big step up from the Hubble. CS Monitor noted that so far, it is already impressive, with an engineering feat of being able to fold itself up like origami during its launch before unfurling to its full size over the course of two weeks once it arrives on orbit.
NASA Boasted of the James Webb's capabilities in a statement in 2014, starting with the fact that it is stationed some four times further away than the Moon. It will help detect light from first galaxies, even explore planets around distant stars.
The statement read: "It will study every phase of our universe's history, ranging from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of planetary systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, to the evolution of our own solar system."
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone