James Webb Space Telescope

[bknight]

I know Jay has posted that carrying heat away from electronics is an issue and the Temperatures are available now and I see an Instrument radiator temperature available.  So, does this radiator connect physically to the instrument circuits and transmit heat physically?  Is this how it's done?

[Bryanpoprobson]

Due to the precision of our launch and our first two mid-course corrections, our team has determined that Webb should have enough fuel to allow support of science operations for significantly more than a 10-year science lifetime! 💫 blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2021/12/2…

[smartcooky]

The Deployable Tower Assembly (the structure that holds the mirrors and the instrument housing) has now been deployed. It has been extended "up" about two metres to give clearance for the sun shield to deploy.

[Zakalwe]

I know Jay has posted that carrying heat away from electronics is an issue and the Temperatures are available now and I see an Instrument radiator temperature available.  So, does this radiator connect physically to the instrument circuits and transmit heat physically?  Is this how it's done?

https://webb.nasa.gov/content/about/innovations/cryocooler.html

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/how-cold-can-you-go-cooler-tested-for-nasa-telescope

[bknight]

I know Jay has posted that carrying heat away from electronics is an issue and the Temperatures are available now and I see an Instrument radiator temperature available.  So, does this radiator connect physically to the instrument circuits and transmit heat physically?  Is this how it's done?

https://webb.nasa.gov/content/about/innovations/cryocooler.html

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/how-cold-can-you-go-cooler-tested-for-nasa-telescope

Interesting.  The first part of the sun screen was accomplished.
https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/

[Bryanpoprobson]

Both sides of the sun shield deployed, tensioning and separation to come, this surely is the tricky part nearly over?

[Peter B]

What an odd sequence of orbital maneuvers..... launch to 220 km, then drop down to about 180 km, then turn upwards and ramp the velocity up to about 10km/s.

The dive from 220km back down to 180km - is that an example of the Oberth Effect?

I don't know. I think it may have been intentional. In the commentary, they were talking about performing "the sawtooth maneuver". They also talked about something to do with avoiding direct sunlight on parts of the telescope.

Aha!

Video from Anton Petrov confirmed the dive was an Oberth Effect maneuver. He also said the spacecraft twisted back and forth on its vertical axis as a measure to protect against Sun heating.

[bknight]

The first three sunshield layers have been tensioned.     The next two will be tensioned tomorrow.

[bknight]

Listening live all five layers have been tensioned.  Now onto the mirrors deployment.

[Bryanpoprobson]

Secondary Mirror deployed successfully.

[bknight]

Secondary Mirror deployed successfully.

Slowly but surely the +/- 300 "devices" work to completely deploy the telescope.   

[raven]

And now one of two wings of the primary mirror have been unfolded. Still on tenterhooks until it's all done, but here's hoping!

[bknight]

My morbid thougts on this telescope have been relieved to a large part, now for the calibrating, etc.

[molesworth]

My morbid thougts on this telescope have been relieved to a large part, now for the calibrating, etc.

Agreed!  After all the delays and setbacks I was expecting problems with the various mechanisms sticking.  It looks like we'll finally get a working telescope, and some incredible views of the universe.

[molesworth]

JWST is now in its L2 orbit, and getting ready to start work.

James Webb telescope parked in observing position

Thirty days after it was launched, the James Webb telescope has arrived at the position in space where it will observe the Universe.

The Lagrange Point 2, as it's known, is a million miles (1.5 million km) from Earth on its nightside.

Webb was finally nudged into an orbit around this location thanks to a short, five-minute thruster burn.

Controllers back on Earth will now spend the coming months tuning the telescope to get it ready for science.

Key tasks include switching on the observatory's four instruments, and also focusing its mirrors - in particular, its 6.5m-wide segmented primary reflector.

There's still a lot of adjustment and checking to do, but it won't be too long before we start to see some amazing images.