Since its launch, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) may have captured some of the most awe-inspiring images in the history of deep space photography. But when it comes to storage, even the humblest modern laptop can outrun it.
The world’s most advanced telescope only has a 68GB solid state drive (SSD). While this number may seem small, it still surpasses the modest 2GB used by the Hubble telescope (previously the world’s best space telescope). Of course, it’s true that it’s so small that it’s almost imperceptible when compared to what’s available to consumers today.
It should be noted that the equipment working in space and those working on Earth are incomparably different. Space conditions, which are very different from our homes, can easily render a normal hard drive dysfunctional.
Also, this space of the telescope is mostly used for short-term storage, and it only needs 24 hours of storage, says Space Telescope Science Institute (STSI) flight systems engineer Alex Hunter. According to the statement, JWST will have planned opportunities to send the images it has recorded before the images it stores completely fill its memory, and it will travel approximately 1.5 million kilometers in the process.
Three percent of the storage is reserved for engineering and telemetry data, and the storage size will likely drop to 60GB in about 10 years, IEEE Spectrum reports.
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