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The James Webb Space Telescope and stuff


Streetwind

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The first science images are expected in about six months.

"We start with the mirrors off by millimeters, and we're driving them to be aligned within less than the size of a coronavirus, like to tens of nanometers," said Jane Rigby, Webb operations project scientist. "It's this very deliberate process that is time consuming."

 

Rather than showing off initially blurry "first light" images in the next few weeks, "we want to make sure that the first images that the world sees ... do justice to this $10 billion telescope," she said. "So we are planning a series of 'wow' images to be released at the end of commissioning."

Webb telescope deployments complete as side mirrors rotate into place - CBS News

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3 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Webb telescope deployments complete as side mirrors rotate into place - CBS News

webb-labled.jpg

At the very left.

"Momentum Flap"

Flaps! They use flaps in vacuum! To manage the momentum!
(Even if this looks more like a fin, but anyway.)

And the whole thing looks like a sailboat.

Aether exists!

 

Spoiler

  

2 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

 

 

red-coloring-glass-water-red-food-colori

And here again!

 

Edited by kerbiloid
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No. The telescope can only image a "ring" of the sky at a given moment, but as it circles around the sun that ring will hit every part of the sky within a year. Scott Manley has more details in his video about the JWST.

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2 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Question - with the requirement of keeping the sun shield between the observatory and the sun, are there parts of the sky in the axis of the orbit that cannot be imaged? 

It has about 60% of the sky available at any time. As it goes around the sun, it can see the full sky over time.

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1 hour ago, cubinator said:

It has about 60% of the sky available at any time. As it goes around the sun, it can see the full sky over time.

Yeah - I'm getting that - but wondered if there was a region above or below the 'pole' of the orbit that it could not resolve b/c of the shade 

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33 minutes ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Yeah - I'm getting that - but wondered if there was a region above or below the 'pole' of the orbit that it could not resolve b/c of the shade 

Here is a direct link to Scott Manley's detailed explanation of all the orbits and angles (timestamp 6:23):

 

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8 minutes ago, HebaruSan said:

Scott Manley's detailed explanation of all the orbits and angles (timestamp 6:23

Thanks - that was great!  Interestingly, he says that what actually happens is the exact opposite of what I feared: there are two small areas at the poles that are constantly viewable. 

Wow.

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After all individual mirror segment deployments are completed, the detailed optical mirror alignment process begins which is about a 3 month process. In parallel, as temperatures cool enough, instrument teams will turn on their instruments and begin each instrument's commissioning process.

Mirrors Webb/NASA

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For those wanting more info, the current blog is a pretty good read:

James Webb Space Telescope (nasa.gov)
 

Quote

 

Each mirror now needs to be deployed out by 12.5 millimeters (about half an inch) to get the pegs clear from the sockets. This will give the mirrors ‘room to roam’ and let them be readied in their starting positions for alignment.

...

 At full speed, it takes about a day to move all the segments by just 1 millimeter. It’s about the same speed at which grass grows!

 

 

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1 hour ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

12.5 millimeters

I did not expected to be this much, I thought they would be much closer to final position... Maybe some small alignment due to rocket vibration or assembly tolerance, but only that

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3 minutes ago, VaPaL said:

I did not expected to be this much, I thought they would be much closer to final position... Maybe some small alignment due to rocket vibration or assembly tolerance, but only that

Apparently they wanted to make durned sure the mirrors were safe from vibrations (Abrupt clamp release, anyone?).  Like you, I'm surprised - but this certainly explains why they're spending so much time releasing and testing each mirror.

... Watching the grass grow?   Daaaaang.

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23 hours ago, VaPaL said:

Mirror position x time:

 

I once described the movie 2001 as "watching a glacier move", granted that was watching a VHS tape on a 1980s CRT TV.  Watching the whole thing later on a real movie theater with Dolby sound was enjoyable.

Perhaps NASA didn't include cameras partly to spare people the nagging feeling that they should be watching the JWST unfold.

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On 1/15/2022 at 5:31 PM, StrandedonEarth said:

I have no idea, but I would assume something similar to a worm-gear screw jack: slow but relatively torquey, allowing for great precision.

 

actuators-based-on-toothed-belt.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=964&height=542&upscale=false&quality=70&webpquality=50

Probably now add an servo motor to it, might even have an gear box for more accuracy but making it even slower. 
Part of the reason why its slow is because its purpose is to bend the glass an fraction of an wavelength and you do not want this to break the mirror if one of them stops for an reason. 

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39 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

Probably now add an servo motor to it, might even have an gear box for more accuracy but making it even slower. 
Part of the reason why its slow is because its purpose is to bend the glass an fraction of an wavelength and you do not want this to break the mirror if one of them stops for an reason. 

The mirror is made of beryllium metal coated in gold, not glass. It won't break.

Edited by cubinator
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