US Aerospace Agency (NASA) engineers, developed for a total of 10 billion dollars at the end of 20 years of work, and claimed to solve the secrets of the universe. James Webb Space Telescope After being launched into space, it successfully completed the first phase of its mission.
FIRST STAGE OK
The unfolding of the giant kite-shaped sun shield was completed yesterday. Thanks to its sun shield the size of a tennis court, the telescope will be sensitive enough to detect signals from the farthest objects in the universe.
Work will next focus on the opening of the telescope’s mirrors, the largest of which is 6.5 meters wide.
THIS IS A VICTORY
The unveiling of the five-layer sun shield is a triumph for the engineering teams at NASA and the aerospace and defense company Northrop Grumman.
Many doubted the cleverness of the design, which included multiple motors, gears, pulleys, and cables.
But as the different layers of the shield were first separated and stretched from one another, years of experimentation with full-scale and smaller models saw the benefit.
Like the other four, the fifth layer, just as thin as a human hair, was put into place on Tuesday evening at 19:58 Turkish time.
“Opening the telescope’s sun shield in space is an incredible milestone, extremely important to the success of the mission,” said Greg Robinson, who runs the Webb telescope program at NASA Headquarters.
“Thousands of parts had to be precision-worked for this engineering marvel to be fully unfolded. The team has had great success with this complex process. It’s one of the most daring things the Webb telescope has ever done,” Robinson said.
–OPENED IN ZERO GRAVITY FOR THE FIRST TIME
It’s important to remember that all previous attempts were made on Earth, under gravitational conditions. The shield is unlocked for the first time in the unique “zero gravity” environment of space.
“It was the first time, and we succeeded,” said Alphonso Stewart, NASA official in charge of the telescope’s positioning systems.
“It’s been a great joy and relief,” said Hillary Stock, Northrop’s head of sun shield.
–SENT DECEMBER 25
The James Webb Space Telescope was launched from French Guiana on December 25 aboard an Ariane rocket.
Webb is seen as a telescope that will replace the Hubble space telescope, which has been operating for 31 years and is now approaching the end of its useful life.
It will carry out studies similar to what Hubble has done, but with the new generation technology it will use, it will be able to look deeper into the universe and therefore further back in time.
The James Webb Space Telescope is expected to see the light of the first stars formed after the Big Bang 13.5 billion years ago.
The success of all this work depends on the telescope’s sensitivity in the infrared. Light from objects at the edge of the observable part of the universe will reach this longer wavelength. Therefore, the Webb telescope needs to be kept at an extremely low temperature because otherwise its infrared rays could suppress the signals it is trying to detect.
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This is why sun shields are important. Its shadow will lower the temperature of the environment around the telescope’s mirrors and instruments to below minus 230 degrees Fahrenheit.
Now it’s time for Webb’s mirrors for the control team at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.
Like the sun shield, the telescope’s two main reflectors had to be folded to fit in the nose of the Ariane rocket.
Today, the 74-centimeter-wide secondary mirror will be extended onto the 8-metre-long arms in front of the main mirror.
The main mirror needs to be rotated 90 degrees for its ‘wings’, which fold back for launch, to reach its full size of 6.5 meters wide. If there are no disruptions, that will happen over the weekend too.
The Webb Telescope is currently heading towards its position 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. He will examine the universe from this point.
The James Webb Space Telescope project is a joint venture of the American, European and Canadian space agencies.
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