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James Webb Telescope: Under Construction


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NASA's Webb Telescope Team Prepares For Earsplitting Acoustic Test

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Inside NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland the James Webb Space Telescope team completed the environmental portion of vibration testing and prepared for the acoustic test on the telescope. Engineers and technicians pushed the telescope (wrapped in a clean tent) through a large set of insulated steel doors nearly a foot thick into the Acoustic Test Chamber, where the telescope will be exposed to the earsplitting noise (and resulting vibration) of launch. These photos show the telescope inside (top) and outside (bottom) the acoustics chamber.

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NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Completes Acoustic and Vibration Tests

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At NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland the James Webb Space Telescope team completed the acoustic and vibration portions of environmental testing on the telescope. These tests are merely two of the many that spacecraft and instruments endure to ensure they are fit for spaceflight.

For the acoustic test, the telescope was wrapped in a clean tent, and engineers and technicians pushed it through a large pair of insulated steel doors nearly a foot thick into the Acoustic Test Chamber. In the chamber the telescope was exposed to the earsplitting noise and resulting vibration of launch.

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This will be so great.  I expect the pictures shared from this instrument will blow our minds, in addition to the scientific contribution of less visual data.  I have been thinking about a visit to South America when the big ground based telescope comes online.  I don't expect to see through it, just seeing it would be a big deal.  By then I'll be retired, but hopefully not yet doddering.

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Seems like there is always something on the horizon making me want to live longer and find out.

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7 hours ago, Frank Merton said:

Seems like there is always something on the horizon making me want to live longer and find out.

I know what you mean, It seems that the universe has an endless supply of wonders and mankind has an endless supply of ingenuity to find them with.

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NASA’s Webb Telescope Completes Goddard Testing, Heading to Texas for More

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NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has successfully passed the center of curvature test, an important optical measurement of Webb’s fully assembled primary mirror prior to cryogenic testing, and the last test held at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, before the spacecraft is shipped to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston for more testing.

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On 03/05/2017 at 2:32 AM, Merc14 said:

Can't wait for this mission.  Should be extraordinary 

And NASA is already working on a space telescope to follow JWST, the WFIRST. This is a golden age for astronomy.

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James Webb Space Telescope Arrives at NASA’s Johnson Space Center

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NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has arrived at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, where it will undergo its last cryogenic test before it is launched into space in 2018.

The telescope was loaded onto a trailer truck from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and moved slowly down a highway by the Webb team to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. At Andrews, the entire tractor-trailer, with telescope inside, was driven into a U.S. Air Force C-5C aircraft and flown to Ellington Field in Houston, Texas.

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Sunshield Layers Fully Integrated on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope

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The five sunshield layers responsible for protecting the optics and instruments of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope are now fully installed.

Northrop Grumman Corporation in Redondo Beach, California who designed the Webb telescope’s optics and spacecraft bus for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, integrated the final flight layers into the sunshield subsystem. The team is now folding and stowing the layers, in preparation for deployment tests in August.

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NASA's Webb Telescope Summertime Deep-Freeze Continues

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NASA's James Webb Space Telescope began a nearly 100-day cryogenic test in a giant chamber in Texas in mid-July. Components of the Webb have previously endured similar tests to ensure they would function in the cold environment of space. Now all of those components are being tested together in the giant thermal vacuum known as Chamber A at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

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I hope they have built more than one. It would be a blow if it cant withstand the test and is destroyed.

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3 hours ago, taniwha said:

I hope they have built more than one. It would be a blow if it cant withstand the test and is destroyed.

Yes because NASA have $billions and $billions they can waste on making two of everything.

Meanwhile back in the real world...

The test will not destroy Webb, at worst it will show problems which need correcting, as happened here: James Webb Telescope test: unexpected results.

The JWST was designed and built by some of the best experts on the planet. They didn't just take wild guesses as to whether it would work. It is, however, an extraordinarily complex machine and there is always the possibility of unforeseen issues or incorrect construction. That is why non-destructive testing is carried out first.

taniwha, trying thinking logically about this. What would be the point of having a second, identical telescope if the first one is destroyed by simple ground tests?

These tests are designed to simulate the conditions that the JWST will encounter in space. If those conditions can destroy the telescope then the telescope is totally unfit for purpose and useless, If you have an identical second JWST it will also be unfit for purpose and useless, so you will have spent twice as much on TWO useless space telescopes.

The only logical reason for having a second, identical, JWST is in the case of the first being lost in a launch accident. NASA simply do not have the money, however, to build two of everything. Fortunately the JWST will be launched by ESA on an Ariane 5, one of the most reliable launch vehicles in history.

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Aligning the Primary Mirror Segments of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope with Light

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Engineers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston used light waves to align the James Webb Space Telescope’s mirror segments to each other, so they act like a single, monolithic mirror in the cryogenic cold of the center’s iconic Chamber A.

Part of the Webb telescope’s ongoing cryogenic testing in Chamber A at Johnson includes aligning, or “phasing,” the telescope’s 18 hexagonally shaped primary mirror segments so they function as a single 6.5-meter mirror. All of these segments must have the correct position and correct curvature; otherwise, the telescope will not be able to accurately focus on its celestial targets.

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Engineers Warm NASA’s Webb Telescope as End of Cryogenic Testing Nears

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The temperature of Chamber A at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston has begun to rise, signaling the beginning of the end of James Webb Space Telescope’s cryogenic testing.

On Sept. 27, engineers began to warm Chamber A to bring the Webb telescope back to room temperature — the last step before the chamber’s massive, monolithic door unseals and Webb emerges in October. Everyone can watch the temperature of Chamber A rise during the next few weeks by checking out the temperature overlay on the online Webbcam.

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Self-Portrait of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Marks Critical Test

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What appears to be a unique selfie opportunity was actually a critical photo for the cryogenic testing of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in Chamber A at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The photo was used to verify the line of sight (the path light will travel) for the testing configuration.

During Webb’s extensive cryogenic testing, engineers checked the alignment of all the telescope optics and demonstrated the individual primary mirror segments can be properly aligned to each other and to the rest of the system. This all occurred in test conditions that simulated the space environment where Webb will operate, and where it will collect data of never-before-observed portions of the universe. Verifying the optics as a system is a very important step that will ensure the telescope will work correctly in space.

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NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Completes Final Cryogenic Testing

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The vault-like, 40-foot diameter, 40-ton door of Chamber A at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston was unsealed on November 18, signaling the end of cryogenic testing for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

The historic chamber’s massive door opening brings to a close about 100 days of testing for Webb, a significant milestone in the telescope’s journey to the launch pad. The cryogenic vacuum test began when the chamber was sealed shut on July 10, 2017. Scientists and engineers at Johnson put Webb’s optical telescope and integrated science instrument module (OTIS) through a series of tests designed to ensure the telescope functioned as expected in an extremely cold, airless environment akin to that of space.

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NASA’s Webb Telescope Emerges from Chamber A

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NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, or Webb, emerged from Chamber A at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston on Dec. 1 to prepare for its upcoming move to California.

The telescope’s combined science instruments and optical element recently completed about 100 days of cryogenic testing inside Johnson’s Chamber A, a massive thermal vacuum testing chamber at the center

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NASA’s James Webb Observatory Prepares for Additional Testing

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Engineers removed the combined optics and science instruments of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope from their shipping container in a high bay at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems in Redondo Beach, California, on March 8, signaling the next step in the observatory’s integration and testing.

Northrop is the final step of Webb’s journey before it travels to its launch site in Kourou, French Guiana. Engineers will conduct final testing at the facility to ensure the observatory is ready for space.

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