Shown with its primary mirror fully deployed, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is the largest and most technically complex space telescope NASA has ever built. Credit: NASA / Chris Gunn
Now that POT‘s James Webb Space Telescope Once assembled in its final form, test teams seized the unique opportunity to perform critical software and electrical analysis across the observatory as a single, fully connected vehicle.
Known as a comprehensive systems test or CST, this was the first comprehensive systems assessment to be conducted at the assembled observatory, and one of the final activities for the first time the team will undertake. Similar performance evaluations have been completed in Webb’s history, using simulations and substitutes to infer data on parts of the spacecraft that had not yet been assembled. Now that Webb is fully built, simulations and simulators are no longer needed, and engineers can confidently evaluate both their software and electronic performance.
Testing is the best way to guarantee mission success.
Webb is the largest and most technically complex space science telescope NASA has ever built. It is made up of many components that must communicate and work in unison to achieve mission success. Evaluations of systems like these ensure that this happens by verifying and validating that each of them is communicating and operating as designed.
The importance of testing cannot be overstated in software development. Individual code units must be tested as they are written, then retested as they are combined into larger and larger software components. The tests should be rerun each time an error is corrected, or a feature is added, to verify that the modified code does not propagate unexpected and unwanted behavior on the system. To complete the test, the staff was staffed 24 hours a day, for 15 consecutive days, and approximately 1,070 scripts or sequences of instructions were executed, and almost 1,370 procedural steps were performed.
After the complete assembly of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, test teams conducted a comprehensive assessment of the systems, allowing them to confidently evaluate Webb’s software and electronic performance as a single fully connected vehicle. Credit: NASA / Chris Gunn
Webb’s final series of tests will determine your readiness for launch. This newly completed CST establishes an electrical functional performance baseline. In a few months, after the observatory completes its next and final set of vibration and acoustic tests simulating the rigors of launch, the team will conduct another exploration of the entire system. Engineers will then compare the “before and after” results, which should be the same, indicating that the spacecraft is operating as a full observatory and will withstand the launch environment to operate as designed once in space. .
“I have never seen so much effort, collaboration, and inter-organizational efforts to bring together so many different teams and people in so many different areas to execute a common goal with such success,” said Randy Pollema, Webb’s electrical integration and testing leader. at Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach, California. “We are very proud and feel a great personal reward for what we have been able to accomplish over the past year by bringing Webb together in its final form, and with the completion of this latest systems assessment we can move forward with confidence. knowing that the assembly was a success. “
Shown with its primary mirror fully deployed, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is the largest and most technically complex space telescope NASA has ever built. Credit: NASA / Chris Gunn
The evolving new coronavirus COVID-19 The situation is causing significant impact and disruption worldwide. After the increased personal safety procedures implemented in March due to COVID-19, the Northrop Grumman team at the James Webb Space Telescope in California continued integration and testing work in the clean room with significantly reduced staff and shifts on site. Starting in late May, the team resumed almost full shift clean room operations. The team is evaluating the impacts on the March 2021 launch date and new risks in the future and will set a new preparation date for launch in July.
The James Webb Space Telescope will be the world’s premier space science observatory, solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond distant worlds around other stars, and exploring the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program run by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.
