Jump to content
Please note: You can easily log in to MPN using your Facebook account!

OT: This one goes to 1 (million miles from Earth, that is)


stoken6

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 27
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

A large segment of our society has turned anti-science--if fact, they are actively hostile. That's going to come back to haunt us over time.

 

For my part, I am quite excited to see what the Webb telescope turns up. It's going to be tough waiting for the telescope to come online.

 

Grey

I'm not interested in someone's ability to program. I'm interested in their ability to compose and play.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Been following this for a long time and was beginning to wonder if it would ever launch. It is still scary to think of all the things that can go wrong. Hard to believe they invested that much in something that cannot be repaired. But, I am looking forward to edge of the universe beginning of time information.

This post edited for speling.

My Sweetwater Gear Exchange Page

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Been following this for a long time and was beginning to wonder if it would ever launch. It is still scary to think of all the things that can go wrong. Hard to believe they invested that much in something that cannot be repaired. But, I am looking forward to edge of the universe beginning of time information.

Hopefully there's some redundancy as well as factors of safety that if X goes wrong, well that's not optimal but the slack can be picked up by Y. Or, we can't see the beginning of the universe but we can see from a million years after that. :)

 

I haven't seen mention of this in the news articles I've read, but I don't expect anything but the most engineering-oriented of articles to cover that kind of thing.

 

I have hope though. Look at the Mars rovers. They designed those things to last 60 or 90 days IIRC, and they crawled around Mars for years.

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Been following this project for years. Fully deployed the Webb will be four times further from Earth than the moon. The low Earth orbit Hubble has required five manned service missions to stay operational. For the Webb I'm hoping for the best, but prepared for the worst.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've been following the project as well, so I'm chewing my nails in the hope that it will hit the mark, hugely outstripping the Hubble.

 

Give this a read and be gobsmacked by things like the super-delicate beryllium panel polishing process, done under deep-space type temperatures to assure a good operational fit once its in service.

 

Webb construction

 

The U.S. share of the cost is a mere $10.8 billion. I wonder how many CS-80s that would buy? Or straitjackets?

 

Webb price tag

"Well, the 60s were fun, but now I'm payin' for it."
        ~ Stan Lee, "Ant-Man and the Wasp"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I saw a segment on television reporting that some of the maneuvers this thing needs to execute are incredibly precise, like within 1/1,000 of an inch. I can"t comprehend a number that small. A $10.8 billion-dollar mission riding on 1/1,000 of an inch? I hope I"ve got that wrong.

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing."

- George Bernard Shaw

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is exciting! But yes, shocking the level of precision needed. I'm going look up those numbers.

 

I actively followed the Hubble launch and 'fix'. One of my professors @ university (Duncan Moore) chaired the independent review panel in 1990 which came up with the correction for the spherical aberration in the main mirror. A few years later, I worked at a company that now owned the former Perkin Elmer building where they polished the mirror wrong (now a SVG Lithography Systems facility). Some of the guys from that era were still around and after a few beers you got them to share interesting stories.

Korg Kronos X73 / ARP Odyssey / Motif ES Rack / Roland D-05 / JP-08 / SE-05 / Jupiter Xm / Novation Mininova / NL2X / Waldorf Pulse II

MBP-LOGIC

American Deluxe P-Bass, Yamaha RBX760

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In an interview (on 60 Minutes, iirc), one of the engineers said that the team incorporated some potential solutions if something should fail to open. They can perform maneuvers that shakes the telescope or spins it clockwise or counterclockwise. Basically, the only ways to slap it on the side in deep space. :thu:
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

They may have to put up with a lull in the enthusiasm. The JWST will not be fully operational until June 2022. I don't think we can keep yelling "Rah! Rah!" that long without seeing some payback.

 

But I bet they're gonna kick some esthetic butt this summer.

-Tom Williams

{First Name} {at} AirNetworking {dot} com

PC4-7, PX-5S, AX-Edge, PC361

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I saw a segment on television reporting that some of the maneuvers this thing needs to execute are incredibly precise, like within 1/1,000 of an inch. I can"t comprehend a number that small. A $10.8 billion-dollar mission riding on 1/1,000 of an inch? I hope I"ve got that wrong.

Oh, the mirror alignment is *much* more exacting than that, by a few orders of magnitude â the precision of the actuator motors is 1/10,000 the width of a human hair.

 

The whole thing is just mind-boggling.

 

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/aligning-the-primary-mirror-segments-of-nasa-s-james-webb-space-telescope-with-light

"The Angels of Libra are in the European vanguard of the [retro soul] movement" (Bill Buckley, Soul and Jazz and Funk)

The Drawbars | off jazz organ trio

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I saw a segment on television reporting that some of the maneuvers this thing needs to execute are incredibly precise, like within 1/1,000 of an inch. I can"t comprehend a number that small. A $10.8 billion-dollar mission riding on 1/1,000 of an inch? I hope I"ve got that wrong.

Oh, the mirror alignment is *much* more exacting than that, by a few orders of magnitude â the precision of the actuator motors is 1/10,000 the width of a human hair.

 

The whole thing is just mind-boggling.

 

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/aligning-the-primary-mirror-segments-of-nasa-s-james-webb-space-telescope-with-light

When I posted that I initially typed 1/10,000 but then questioned my recollection of the news segment, telling myself 'nah, that can"t be right.' Now I"m hoping we both heard it wrong. ;)

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing."

- George Bernard Shaw

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Update on Webb telescope -- it's almost in position and everything going according to plan so far

 

Webb update

 

Quote

Ground teams plan to fire Webb’s thrusters at 2 p.m. Monday, Jan. 24 to insert the space telescope into orbit around the Sun at the second Lagrange point, or L2, its intended destination, nearly 1 million miles from Earth. This mid-course correction burn has long been planned for approximately 29 days after launch. This week, the mission operations team selected the target date and time for the burn. Engineers also finished remotely moving Webb’s mirror segments out of their launch positions to begin the months-long process of aligning the telescope’s optics.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

https://www.npr.org/2022/01/24/1075437484/james-webb-telescope-final-destination

 

Quote

The James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful telescope ever built, has reached its final destination in space. Now comes the fun part. 

 

Thirty days after its launch, the tennis court-size telescope made its way into a parking spot that's about a million miles away from Earth. From there, it will begin its ambitious mission to better understand the early days of our universe, peer at distant exoplanets and their atmospheres and help answer large-scale questions such as how quickly the universe is expanding.

 

"Webb, welcome home!" NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement Monday after the massive telescope's final course correction. 

 

"We're one step closer to uncovering the mysteries of the universe. And I can't wait to see Webb's first new views of the universe this summer!"

 

"I'm so crazy, I don't know this is impossible! Hoo hoo!" - Daffy Duck

 

"The good news is that once you start piano you never have to worry about getting laid again. More time to practice!" - MOI

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...