The fully assembled James Webb Space Telescope has completed testing to test whether it can withstand a billion ડ 10 billion mission in Southern California and experience a tremor that will be launched on the European Ariane 5 rocket later next year.
“After completing its environmental tests, #NASAVBB Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, tweeted that he had proven to be able to experience loud noises, shaking debris and vibrations during departure.
Subject to a web observatory based on lobe observation in an environmental test at the Northrop Grumman facility at Redndo Beach, California. Northrop Grumman and NASA teams first put the observatory through a sound test for a sound energy projection that will appear during the launch.
Engineers blasted the observatory with high-frequency noise pressure levels above 140 decibels, “The spacium will be tuned with the special signature of the Ariane 5 rocket that will go into space.” Sensors inside the acoustic test chamber measured about 600 individual channels of motion data, about six times longer than a normal spacecraft acoustic and vibration test campaign.
The complex size and shape of the observatory need further measurements to ensure success, NASA said in a statement.
Engineers then moved JWST inside a mobile clean room to protect its sensitive mirrors, devices and other spacecraft systems – in a separate facility at the Northrop Grumman factory and placed it on a vibration table. To test its ability to weather low frequency energy radiation during rocket launches, the table rotated the observatory on both the serv and horizontal axis.
“Environmental testing shows the web’s ability to avoid rocket rides in space, the most violent part of its orbit of about one million miles from Earth,” said Bill Ch Chase, web project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. . “The multinational group of individuals responsible for the implementation of acoustic and vibration testing is made up of an outstanding and dedicated group of people typical of the entire WebB team.”
The individual elements of the spacecraft and telescope had previously passed similar environmental tests, but recent targets observed for the first time that the entire observatory underwent full-sound and vibration testing.
Parts of the observatory, such as its spacecraft platform and telescope, have also undergone thermal vacuum testing to test their performance under extreme temperature swings that would see deep deep space in an airless atmosphere.
In the months leading up to the environmental tests, the engineers completed a comprehensive systems test on the web and a test of the mission’s ground infrastructure.
NASA and Northrop Grumman conducted environmental tests with the web in its launch configuration, shutting down its mirrors, sunshield and solar panels as they would be located inside the envelope of the Area 5 rocket.
In the coming months, engineers will deploy the observatory in the configuration of its operation to verify that the actuators and mechanisms are still in good condition, after weathering the acoustics and mechanisms, acoustic and vibration testing. The deployment will include opening the web’s split 21.3-foot diameter (6.5-meters) and expanding the mission’s five-level thermal sunshade to the size of a tennis court.
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“Alt =” “/>NASA officials said a preliminary analysis of a recent environmental test indicates that the observatories have passed the tests successfully. “But WebBay will have a full verification of flight suitability after successfully completing the final deployment tests,” NASA said.
The ground crew will then close the observatory and place it in a special shipping container for transport by sea to the European-operated Guyana space center in South America. Teams will prepare the web for launch on the Ariane 5 rocket, and the next time it will spread its telescope wings, sunshield and other attachments, the observatory will be in space.
NASA announced in July that the launch of JWST would be delayed by a seven-month slip from its previous target launch date in March 2021 to Oct. 31, 2021. Officials blamed the coronavirus epidemic, which slowed down Northrop Grumman and other technical tests. Issues for delays.
The Web is the largest and most powerful space telescope ever. The Serv Observatory’s infrared instruments reach the oldest, farthest parts of the universe and study some of the first stars and galaxies that formed 135.5 billion years after the Big Bang.
Astronomers will also use the web to see galaxies form and evolve, to study the birth of stars, and to learn more about the atmosphere of planets that may be hospitable to life outside our solar system.
The Ariane launch is part of the Observatory’s scientific payload with the European Space Agency’s contribution to the JWST mission. The Canadian space agency is also a partner in missions with NASA and ESA.
ESA signed a launch agreement with ArianeSpace to provide Ariane 5 launch services for the JWST mission. The Ariane 5 space telescope will send an observation post about one million miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth.
At the most recent Arian launch launch in August Gust, engineers tested small changes to the rocket’s payload ferries, designed to meet the stringent requirements for a one-of-a-kind astronomical observer.
Engineers changed the rental design on the payload shroud of Ariane 5, built by RUAG Space in Switzerland – to address concerns that fair jettisons after a liftoff could damage the web during a depressurization event. Officials were concerned that the residue trapped in Verib’s folded sunshield membrane could cause a “more stressful situation” at the time of proper air release.
In a recent interview, the director of ESA’s space transportation division said the space agency Ariane 5 is committed to ensuring that the web observatory is ready to launch. Europe’s next pay-generation Ariane 6 rocket, scheduled for inaugural test launch in the second half of 2021, still has only eight Ariane 5 missions to fly before the full transition to ESA and Ariane space.
“We’re looking forward to James Webb with Arizon 5,” said Daniel Nuancewender, ESA’s director of space transportation.
As European teams prepare for the launch of the Ari Ryan the Rocket and continue to introduce minor improvements to the Ariane 5, Nuancevender said ESA is committed to using the Ariane launcher with “fully qualified” components for the expensive JWST mission.
“We’ll use what we prepare for James Webb.” “I will only give my green light on any issue that is fully qualified. If they (the JWST team) are ready, I am confident we will be ready, especially with the new date of October 2021. ”
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