SSD Size of James Webb Space Telescope Announced

The James Webb Space Telescope, which was originally planned to be launched in 2007, but whose launch was delayed for years due to the problems encountered, developments and updates, was launched into space on December 25, 2021. The first color images of the telescope were also shared by NASA recently.

So how did the James Webb Space Telescope send these photos to Earth? Where did the telescope store the photos it took before sending it? Let’s look at the answers to these questions that have the potential to surprise many of you.

How is data sent?

• The James Webb Space Telescope, its L2 point and other Lagrangian points.

Contrary to your expectations, the James Webb Space Telescope is not state-of-the-art in every sense. Although the telescope, of course, includes the latest or even the first used technologies in some of its technologies, technologies that are known to be robust are used for long-term durability and reliability.

The Telescope, located 1.5 million kilometers from Earth, sends the photos it takes to the world over ‘Ka band’ frequencies. According to Michael Menzel, mission systems engineer for James Webb, the telescope can send 28 megabytes of data per second over the 25.9 gigahertz channel.

In addition to this main frequency, the telescope provides data transmission from both channels in the S band. While one of these channels is 2.09 GHz, 16 kilobits per second data transfer can be provided over the channel. The second channel, the 2.27 GHz channel, can send 40 kilobits of data per second. This channel is often used to obtain information about the telescope’s status, such as the telescope’s operational status and the health of the systems.

The James Webb Space Telescope is connected to the ‘Deep Space Network (DSN)’ network, to which many vehicles such as the Parker Solar spacecraft, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Antenna and the Voyager spacecraft are connected. This network is kept alive with antennas placed in three locations around the world: Australia, Spain and California.

Of course, the Telescope is not connected to the Earth 24/7, but where does it store the data it obtains without sending it to Earth?

According to the shared information, James Webb only includes a 68 GB SSD, which will surprise many of you. 3% of this storage is reserved for engineering and telemetry data. Apart from that, the total storage space is expected to decrease to 60 GB in the next 10 years due to the damage caused by radiation in space.

Of course, the data obtained from the depths of space does not stay for long in the 68 GB SSD. Because the storage area is large enough to store the data obtained in only 24 hours. The James Webb Space Telescope, on the other hand, transmits the data it obtains at specified intervals during the day to the Earth and deletes it from the storage area.

The James Webb Space Telescope could capture 57GB of data per day, while Hubble was only 2GB.