The James Webb Telescope

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
TastesLikeChicken

TastesLikeChicken

Lifer
Sep 12, 2004
16,852
59
86
A new documentary is out about the JWT on the Discovery Channel. The documentary is ok, but I am still excited because I first heard about this telescope in the late 90s and now it is finally coming close to fruition. 100X the capability of the Hubble. The Pillars of Creation? Pffft. Can't wait to see what this will produce despite the major cost over-runs.
 
Jeff7

Jeff7

Lifer
Jan 4, 2001
41,599
19
81
God I just hope it all works. That looks like a lot of mechanical deployments.
 
SKORPI0

SKORPI0

Lifer
Jan 18, 2000
18,404
2,309
136
james-webb-space-telescope-130110b-02.jpg


Hopefully nothing goes wrong during deployment of those 18 segmented mirrors and their alignment won't be a problem.
It's gonna be too far from Earth for any kind of service.

d48prN.gif
 
Last edited:
JSt0rm

JSt0rm

Lifer
Sep 5, 2000
27,399
3,947
126
I worked on a nasa video for this some years ago. Glad it's coming out. First thing I thought about when NASA budget was boosted.
 
ImpulsE69

ImpulsE69

Lifer
Jan 8, 2010
14,946
1,077
126
When something is in development for this long, do they change the technology to keep up with the times, or only to a point if it saves cost?
 
D

darkswordsman17

Lifer
Mar 11, 2004
23,063
5,533
146
Had been seeing some articles about this and meaning to learn more. Giddy about what it could bring us. I'm not sure that we'll get another "whoa" moment like the Hubble Deep Field image, but you never know.

ImpulsE69 said:
When something is in development for this long, do they change the technology to keep up with the times, or only to a point if it saves cost?
Click to expand...

I'd say it really depends, but a lot of this stuff is basically bespoke, and the overall design is so tightly constrained around what was planned to be used that I'm not sure there's much if any leeway. The smart way of doing it would be to figure out the stuff that would be least likely to change with technology and then set that in stone, and then try to design some adaptability in other components.
 
IronWing

IronWing

No Lifer
Jul 20, 2001
68,980
26,846
136
If NASA pulls this off, I vow to never again use the expression "America, fuck yeah" in an ironic manner.
 
Jeff7

Jeff7

Lifer
Jan 4, 2001
41,599
19
81
TastesLikeChicken said:
The tension during the wait for that first pic to come through is going to be unbelievable.
Click to expand...
Probably not even the first pic: Probably just the status updates for each stage of deployment.

"Oh thank god that one actually worked. Come ooonnnnnn next stage!"
 
TastesLikeChicken

TastesLikeChicken

Lifer
Sep 12, 2004
16,852
59
86
ImpulsE69 said:
When something is in development for this long, do they change the technology to keep up with the times, or only to a point if it saves cost?
Click to expand...
According to the documentary many of the massive cost overruns have involved incremental tech improvements. Think about how digital imaging has improved since the late 90s when this was first conceived, and how it continues to get so much better. When even small changes/upgrades are made to a design of this complexity it can seriously impact the costs.
 
rockyct

rockyct

Diamond Member
Jun 23, 2001
6,656
32
91
I just hope people aren't disappointed by the images in terms of what the objects look like. They won't be true color (although a lot of NASA images aren't) because it's mainly for IR wavelengths.
 
Jeff7

Jeff7

Lifer
Jan 4, 2001
41,599
19
81
rockyct said:
I just hope people aren't disappointed by the images in terms of what the objects look like. They won't be true color (although a lot of NASA images aren't) because it's mainly for IR wavelengths.
Click to expand...
Depends on how dim the people are.

Even if it's a 20-pixel photo of a pebble that's 5 light years away, there'll still be some people complaining about the lousy quality.

And people who will cry conspiracy garbage about NASA not showing the real colors, with no understanding at all about what "infrared" means, or why it can be more useful than the limited visual spectrum of human eyes.

As fancy as it is, the JWST still can't fix stupidity or willful ignorance.


I'm expecting that the images it returns will be damned impressive, like what Hubble's images were after its optics were corrected as compared to anything from a ground-based telescope up to that time. (Though adaptive optics these days can produce some really good results too.)
 
Fenixgoon

Fenixgoon

Lifer
Jun 30, 2003
31,537
9,891
136
a local chapter of a professional society hosted a lead engineer and project manager from JWST. the presentation was fascinating from a design standpoint, and the capabilities are truly incredible, even as someone who really can't grasp exactly what scientists will be able to do with it.

6.5m beryllium mirrors polished to 2nm surface finish (or flatness? can't remember). either way, goddamn the thing is impressive.
 
Rumpltzer

Rumpltzer

Diamond Member
Jun 7, 2003
4,815
33
91
First job out of school was doing growth for the primary and one of the secondary cameras (detectors/focal plane arrays). Saw parts of it in one of the high bays on campus years ago. One of my program managers was working on JWST comms, and she's been recently moved to a new role.

It's about time! When I left school, the launch date was supposed to be 2011 or 2012.

Glad it didn't get cancelled.
 
T

tcsenter

Lifer
Sep 7, 2001
18,348
259
126
There were two mirrors made for the original Hubble, one for spare or backup. It is still in storage and, unlike the mirror chosen to go into Hubble SP, has been verified as perfect (not defective). I think we should use it to build Hubble 2.0 for when Hubble ST finally goes dead. Use pretty much the same design, just updated the newest sensors, processors, memory, and shit.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Muse
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom