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The James Webb Space Telescope

poweRob

poweRob

USMC 1988-1996
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There is a fantastic story on this telescope on WaPo but it is a paywall. So I found this link. Launching on Christmas. $10 billion wonder or it could be a $10 billion boondoggle if it doesn't open up correctly.

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Its the size of a tennis court that is all folded up and as it comes out of the capsule, it has 344 single points of potential failure. Infrared telescope so it can see much more than Hubble can and it will be in orbit about 4 times the distance from earth than what the moon is making it out of reach for any repairs. So it launches, comes out of capsule, then unfolds then travels to it's orbit. Fingers crossed.
 
It's an amazing piece of technology...
 
poweRob said:
There is a fantastic story on this telescope on WaPo but it is a paywall. So I found this link. Launching on Christmas. $10 billion wonder or it could be a $10 billion boondoggle if it doesn't open up correctly.

​


Its the size of a tennis court that is all folded up and as it comes out of the capsule, it has 344 single points of potential failure. Infrared telescope so it can see much more than Hubble can and it will be in orbit about 4 times the distance from earth than what the moon is making it out of reach for any repairs. So it launches, comes out of capsule, then unfolds then travels to it's orbit. Fingers crossed.
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It is also 20+ years in the making. I cannot recall a NASA project that has been delayed as often, or as long, as the JWST. Even during its final last few days before being launched, it is still being delayed.
 
I have been following this for years. So nervous, but so excited!

Hoping for the best!
 
Glitch said:
We don't know that yet. It could arrive at its destination and not function. Then it will be a piece of wasted technology.
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LMAO...You have no idea of the kinds of problems they already solved to get to this point...
 
BlueTex said:
LMAO...You have no idea of the kinds of problems they already solved to get to this point...
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Actually, I do. I started following the project back in 2000. If anything it is an argument for to why NASA should be abolished. In the private sector this project could have been completed within 5 years, instead of the 20+ years it took NASA.
 
Glitch said:
Actually, I do. I started following the project back in 2000. If anything it is an argument for to why NASA should be abolished. In the private sector this project could have been completed within 5 years, instead of the 20+ years it took NASA.
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Bullshit.. The program has been almost ENTIRELY built by the private sector... I actually worked on a small part of JWST... The private sector would NEVER invest in something like JWST, their is NO profit..
 
Glitch said:
Actually, I do. I started following the project back in 2000. If anything it is an argument for to why NASA should be abolished. In the private sector this project could have been completed within 5 years, instead of the 20+ years it took NASA.
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The private sector would have built it in never years, actually. It's not profitable.
 
BlueTex said:
Bullshit.. The program has been almost ENTIRELY built by the private sector... I actually worked on a small part of JWST... The private sector would NEVER invest in something like JWST, their is NO profit..
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Mr. @Glitch has a fundamental problem understanding how NASA even works at all.
It is lost on him that NASA contracts with the private sector for nearly everything...there is no "NASA FACTORY" where stuff gets assembled at the sub-component level.
The components are built BY contracted private sector companies.
For instance, the mirror on Hubble...built entirely BY Perkin-Elmer optics, for instance, the solid rocket boosters for the Space Shuttle were built entirely at Thiokol's Promontory Utah plant, for instance, LEM for the Apollo Moon missions, built by Grumman.

Even the TELEMETRY CODE that measures, triggers and governs every aspect of every space mission down to the hundredth of a second, is something that was initially developed by a small software firm called EeCo, and that turned out to be a gift to the video industry, which adapted it to make SMPTE TIME CODE.

Timecodes are added to film, video or audio material, and have also been adapted to synchronize music and theatrical production. They provide a time reference for editing, synchronization and identification. Timecode is a form of media metadata. The invention of timecode made modern videotape editing possible and led eventually to the creation of non-linear editing systems.

So actually, while there is no direct profit, there are highly lucrative spinoff and knock-on effects which routinely change the faces and directions of the industries which get involved with NASA.
 
Moon said:
Really excited to see what it shows us.
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Yep, it's going to be fascinating to see what it shows us all.
It's going to uncover stuff we can't expect and be used by scientists all over the world for exciting projects.
 
BlueTex said:
Bullshit.. The program has been almost ENTIRELY built by the private sector... I actually worked on a small part of JWST... The private sector would NEVER invest in something like JWST, their is NO profit..
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The program was managed ENTIRELY by NASA, which is why it took more than two decades to complete. NASA is utterly incompetent, like all government agencies.
 
Glitch said:
The program was managed ENTIRELY by NASA, which is why it took more than two decades to complete. NASA is utterly incompetent, like all government agencies.
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Why hasn’t the private sector built a telescope in the 20 years NASA has been working on the JWST?
 
Checkerboard Strangler said:
Mr. @Glitch has a fundamental problem understanding how NASA even works at all.
It is lost on him that NASA contracts with the private sector for nearly everything...there is no "NASA FACTORY" where stuff gets assembled at the sub-component level.
The components are built BY contracted private sector companies.
For instance, the mirror on Hubble...built entirely BY Perkin-Elmer optics, for instance, the solid rocket boosters for the Space Shuttle were built entirely at Thiokol's Promontory Utah plant, for instance, LEM for the Apollo Moon missions, built by Grumman.

Even the TELEMETRY CODE that measures, triggers and governs every aspect of every space mission down to the hundredth of a second, is something that was initially developed by a small software firm called EeCo, and that turned out to be a gift to the video industry, which adapted it to make SMPTE TIME CODE.

Timecodes are added to film, video or audio material, and have also been adapted to synchronize music and theatrical production. They provide a time reference for editing, synchronization and identification. Timecode is a form of media metadata. The invention of timecode made modern videotape editing possible and led eventually to the creation of non-linear editing systems.

So actually, while there is no direct profit, there are highly lucrative spinoff and knock-on effects which routinely change the faces and directions of the industries which get involved with NASA.
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Have a very good understanding of how dysfunctional NASA is, as the JWST demonstrates. NASA has been responsible for the entire project from the very beginning, and it still took them more than two decades to complete.

Compare NASA today to what they were in the 1960s. In just nine years NASA managed to put a man on the moon and return him safely back to Earth. Now it takes them more than two decades to put an unmanned satellite into orbit. Utterly pathetic. NASA needs to be abolished. It is unconstitutional anyway.
 
Glitch said:
As Checkerboard Strangler pointed out, they did. Under the very poor direction of NASA.
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Why have they not built a competitor? According to you they could have built and launched four in the time it took NASA. Why has that not happened?
 
Glitch said:
Have a very good understanding of how dysfunctional NASA is, as the JWST demonstrates. NASA has been responsible for the entire project from the very beginning, and it still took them more than two decades to complete.

Compare NASA today to what they were in the 1960s. In just nine years NASA managed to put a man on the moon and return him safely back to Earth. Now it takes them more than two decades to put an unmanned satellite into orbit. Utterly pathetic. NASA needs to be abolished. It is unconstitutional anyway.
Click to expand...
 
Glitch said:
Have a very good understanding of how dysfunctional NASA is, as the JWST demonstrates. NASA has been responsible for the entire project from the very beginning, and it still took them more than two decades to complete.
Click to expand...

And all those projects managed by private companies didn't even start building a telescope. Private businesses can't even start a project without government help, apparently.
 
BlueTex said:
Why hasn’t the private sector built a telescope in the 20 years NASA has been working on the JWST?
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It costs bloody loads and scientists aren't known for being super rich.
I'm unsure how a telescope such as this could make money let alone make a profit.
 
It will take about a month for the JWST to reach its destination: orbit around the sun at the L-2 lagrange point. Then it needs to unfold the 18 gold-coated segments of its hexagonal mirror and the huge sun shade.

At 1 million miles from the Earth, if anything major goes wrong, there's no physical fix available.

If everything unfolds correctly, the JWST will spend the next 4 months aligning, calibrating, and focusing its instruments.

Then, the show is on. The JWST has four different telescopes and spectrographs. The return data should be tremendous.
 
Rogue Valley said:
It will take about a month for the JWST to reach its destination: orbit around the sun at the L-2 lagrange point. Then it needs to unfold the 18 gold-coated segments of its hexagonal mirror and the huge sun shade.

At 1 million miles from the Earth, if anything major goes wrong, there's no physical fix available.

If everything unfolds correctly, the JWST will spend the next 4 months aligning, calibrating, and focusing its instruments.

Then, the show is on. The JWST has four different telescopes and spectrographs. The return data should be tremendous.
Click to expand...
Almost all the unfolding happens within the first 13 days.
 
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