NASA personnel began inspecting the power subsystem to make sure that the new space telescope James Webb was ready to stretch the enormous sun shield, which could be said to be the most important procedure, and that things would run smoothly. This review is a bit of a push ahead of schedule.
Launched on December 25, the space telescope is running a month-long docking procedure necessary to prepare the telescope for data collection. But most steps in this procedure are controlled from decision. While NASA has an ad hoc schedule for the study, mission leaders may decide to change the timetable along the way.
Although NASA has reserved Saturday, January 1, as a rest day, Webb announced that his team spent Sunday, January 2, examining the observatory’s power subsystem.
Bill Ochs, Webb project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Maryland, said in a statement released Sunday, January 2, that “nothing we can learn from simulations on the ground is better than analyzing the observatory in operation.” : “Now is the time to seize the opportunity to learn all we can about its core operations. We will then take the next steps.”
Specifically, the team is focusing on the temperature of a series of engines that will be used during stretching the sun shield, the process that separates and softens the five delicate layers of the kite-shaped sun shield. This sun shield is critical to the entire system, as the Webb telescope focuses on heat-sensitive infrared observations.
Webb’s lead systems engineer at GSFC, Mike Menzel, said in his statement, “We spent 20 years with Webb designing, developing and testing in the field,” and continued: “We had a week to see how the observatory actually behaves in space. “It’s not unusual to learn about certain of its features. That’s what we’re doing right now. Implementation went as smoothly as we hoped. But before we move forward, we want to take our time and understand everything about the observatory.”
Stretching the sun shield is a complex process that NASA expects to take two days. NASA originally planned to start work on Saturday, but Friday’s operations took place later than expected, and the team decided to take New Year’s Day off to rest.
When mission managers decided to take a closer look at engine temperatures, they didn’t want the team to work on two aspects of the observatory simultaneously. After the sun shield is fully stretched, the team will continue to open the secondary mirror.
Although there was a slight time change in the plan, the telescope is still making progress. Webb continues to move away from Earth and is about 60% of the way to his destination. Also known as L2, this point is located 1.6 million kilometers from Earth, almost in the opposite direction from the Sun.
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