As spaceships exit the cosmos, communication is key. Space missions depend on excellent communications between ground control and other satellites, telescopes and probes for their survival.
Now NASA’s James Webb Telescope has proven that it’s for the job, too. This week, NASA announced that the telescope has passed its Ground Segment Test, and shows that it can receive commands after launching into space.
The Ground Segment Test ensures that communication with the telescope runs smoothly. It marks the first time that commands to launch and test Webb’s scientific instruments have been sent to the telescope from the Mission Operations Center at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, according to NASA.
“We performed pieces of this test when the observatory was assembled, but this is the first ever, and completely successful, end-to-end operation of the observatory and ground segment,” said Amanda Arvai, deputy division chief of mission operations. at STScI in Maryland, said in a statement.
“This is a major milestone for the project, and very rewarding to see Webb work as expected.”
The test went through the whole process as if the telescope were already in space. To begin with, the scientists mapped out the specific missions that the Webb telescope will follow when it comes to its scientific mission. It ended by transferring the data collected after the relay to a special archive, which will act as a database for the telescope’s observations.
During the test, commands to turn on, move and operate each of Webb’s four scientific instruments were transmitted from the mission center to the telescope as if it were millions of miles away in space.
But the telescope is still on the ground and is not yet in orbit. To recreate the space environment, special equipment was used to emulate the radio connection between the James Webb Telescope and the Deep Space Network. The Deep Space Network is a worldwide network of antennas that uses radio frequency transmissions to communicate with a spacecraft around an orbit.
Once in space, commands will be issued through the mission center in Maryland and one of the three locations of the Deep Space Network, California, Spain or Australia. These command calls will then be streaked to the telescope, which will be about a million miles away in space.
“This was also the first time we demonstrated the full cycle for observations with scientific instruments from the observatory,” Arvai said.
“This cycle begins with the creation of an observation plan through the ground system that will be uplinked by the Flight Operations Team to the observatory. Webb’s scientific instruments then passed the observations and data to the Mission Operations Center in Baltimore, where the science was processed and distributed to scientists. “
The James Webb Telescope has been in operation for more than a decade, since 1996. It should be a successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, which has been feeding scientists for 30 years valuable data and incredible images of the cosmos.
The James Webb Telescope has already endured many delays, with a first launch window planned for 2018, which was later returned to 2020. Now NASA has set a launch date of 31 October 2021.
Once it finally makes its way to space, the James Webb Telescope will be the most powerful space telescope ever designed, with the unique advantage of observing objects far away in the universe, and its history unpacking from the cosmos.
