Fine Ham Abounds
Member
Then you just have to be nervous for another month
And then until the thing unfolds
And then until it transmits clear pictures
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After 20 Years, NASA completes the James Webb telescope. The most powerful ever!
- Thread starter HStallion
- Start date
Then you just have to be nervous for another month
And then until the thing unfolds
And then until it transmits clear pictures
Yeah after the whole Hubble ordeal, the stress working on this must be crazy.
Hopefully everything goes well, been hearing about this for so long.
So simple! So easy!
Dude watch some videos about this thing on youtube, it will blow your mind! It'll probably lay to rest some of your questions too.
Escape Goat
Member
What if we taped some Gamecubes together?
pseudocaesar
Member
Shame its not a visible light telescope like Hubble.
ilikesanta
Member
Satellite gets so much trim, they had to give it a flap to navigate though all them hoes.
Deep space is highly red shifted
Can't wait to see what this telescope discovers. Definitely hyped for this!
Hopefully the space agencies are planning to work on a successor that is like 3-4x larger with more power so that we can see even further =D.
Edit: Would be cool to have a visible light scope that could see just as far, but idk if that's within our means as of yet.
Hopefully the space agencies are planning to work on a successor that is like 3-4x larger with more power so that we can see even further =D.
Edit: Would be cool to have a visible light scope that could see just as far, but idk if that's within our means as of yet.
Ah, this makes total sense, the picture in the OP makes it look like it's orbiting the L2 point, but it's actually just in the L2 point? I thought I understood Lagrange points and then that picture got me properly confused.Think back to Calc3 where you had relative maximums and relative minimums.
Edit: Looking at the OP, it still looks like you're meant to interpret it as the telescope orbiting the L2...
Slackbladder
Member
FelixOrion
Poet Centuriate
Learn to be an amateur astronomer. Astronomy is one of the few fields of science where amateurs can still make meaningful contributions in any decent/attributable sense.
Randomizer
Member
This thing has been giving me blue balls for over a decade. And we still have to wait another 2-3 years before seeing some results.
Oh, wow that's cool. I tried to search for it myself but couldn't figure out the right terms.
Snazzy visual for other confused people.
I mean, I don't understand the maths of it but considering the Earth's gravity, it kinda makes a small amount of sense.
kaname-san
Member
it's pretty cool but it could have been a lot better. they should have made it look like this:
http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net...-Himiko.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20090126220442
http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net...-Himiko.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20090126220442
Luckily for them, Ariane 5 has 96% successful launch rate, with no failures in the last 14 years.
The stars would still be too wiimote to see clearly
Watch this video and see all the little details that can go wrong when it unfolds too. Man it's going to require a miracle for something not to go wrong.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTxLAGchWnA
fast_taker
Member
really exciting news!!!
killer rin
Member
Absolutely amazing news. Can't wait to see the pictures this thing produces
It would be too far to send a manned craft, but couldn't they test it while it's still in Low Earth Orbit, then if there is no problems send it further out?
It would be too far to send a manned craft, but couldn't they test it while it's still in Low Earth Orbit, then if there is no problems send it further out?
They can't unfold it in earth orbit; it can only be opened once, and once opened can't take the forces imposed by the rocket. Also, it can't be serviced by humans anyway. Hubble was *designed* to be serviceable, with human-accessible fastener hatches and removable racks for the instruments. It was designed during the Shuttle's heyday, when this sort of maintenance would be the norm for every satellite. It meant the telescope could be upgraded, but it also made for a more complex design. Webb has a lifespan limited by propellant and coolant. With no reasonable expectation of the tech or budget being available to develop refuelling/servicing capability, it was never really considered.
The PS1 chip has been in space and is used in missions.
Space-hardened computers continue to be improved, but the market is small so improvements come rarely. I can't track down the exact spec for the JWST cpu, but it does have custom ASICs for the actual instruments, which do most of the hardcore signal processing. The central computer itself doesn't have too many taxing jobs - just spacecraft guidance, data storage and transmission, general management. I'd be surprised if it's not a RAD750 - a 200MHZ PowerPC chip that's got a long history of use in NASA spacecraft.
Its successor, the RAD5500, is 10x as powerful but hasn't actually flown yet. The next Mars rover might have one.
RocknRola
Member
It's gonna be awesome when they finally get to use the i7 for their rovers/satelites/space things in 50 or so years
Hehe, though it's understandable. Tested and true computer parts, that they know WON'T produce strange results/problems are a must for these projects. Using the newest and best tech is risky as obviously replacing them once in space isn't really a valid option.
This is confusing. How do we get images like this given the above?
It's gonna be awesome when they finally get to use the i7 for their rovers/satelites/space things in 50 or so years
Hehe, though it's understandable. Tested and true computer parts, that they know WON'T produce strange results/problems are a must for these projects. Using the newest and best tech is risky as obviously replacing them once in space isn't really a valid option.
I believe the Hubble even has a MOS 6502 on-board...
Jezbollah
Member
For comparison, New Horizons (that had it's flyby past Pluto earlier this year and launched in 2006) has a R3000 CPU originally produced in 1988. Its also the same type of chip that Sony used in the Playstation 2.
NASA use tried, tested and hardened computer hardware over powerful new chips to ensure maximum reliability.
NASA use tried, tested and hardened computer hardware over powerful new chips to ensure maximum reliability.
Also similar to the R4300i inside the Nintendo 64.
FreedomFighter
Member
Can't wait to see what pics we get from this bad boy.
jchap
Member
That's just over exposure from a really bright star next to a very faint one. They are still both point sources.
Isn't this meant to be the first photograph taken of an extrasolar planet? An enormous Jupiter-alike I'm sure, but a planet.
DouglasteR
Member
Here´s hoping for the best !
We need better shots at the Universe !
We need better shots at the Universe !
Samurai G0SU
Member
If it's on the other side of the moon, wouldn't a lot of asteroid/meteor debris be a worry?
IDk space but i thought i remember something that the moon catches a lot of these things from hitting earth. maybe i dreamed idk LOL
IDk space but i thought i remember something that the moon catches a lot of these things from hitting earth. maybe i dreamed idk LOL
Escape Goat
Member
Go home. You're drunk.
Last Prime
Member
For 10 billion dollars, I hope they built more than one.
RocknRola
Member
Yup. And again, completely understandable. The risks with new tech are far too great to risk it. Even if it means the project (be it whatever it may be) can't be as awesome as it possibly could, when you're spending billions there is no room for any sort of mistake or new and unexpected problems. Getting stuff up there is already complicated enough.
The chances of getting hit by a large object are pretty slim though, since the "hitbox" is tiny, and the telescope itself won't really have mass enough to pull anything in towards itself, I'm guessing it's a calculated risk (the risk being tiny).
Why build one when you can have two at twice the price
eot
Banned
A lot of the technology used for these kinds of projects doesn't exist when the project begins. It's not just a matter of assembling it, 20 years is to design it, to develop all the technologies required to make it meet its specifications and then to actually build the thing. You also have to take into account that these projects involve a huge number of collaborators and are quite complex to organise (getting people to agree on designs, goals and budgets ate up a ton of time for this project). This is not an industry project where there exists efficient manufacturing pipelines for everything. It's a research project, and when everything is custom made/designed things take a loooot of time. You need to think long and hard about the tiniest details of this thing.
Also, the LHC was conceived in the mid 80's and started as a project in the early 90's. It took a long ass time too. LIGO, the gravitational wave detector(s) that made the big discovery a while back still aren't operating at their design specs (they will be soon though).
A lot of science is going "this shouldn't be that hard" then spending years working through all the problems you didn't anticipate. That's how you make progress.
Insane Metal
Member
Nope, actually the same chip Sony used in the original PSX.
PhantomX1313
Member
Looks like a beyblade upside or mouse trap.
Well, technically it was used in the PS2, but only for compatibility with the original console
Well, technically it was used in the PS2, but only for compatibility with the original console
Maybe the cell processor will power the second generation JWT
PdotMichael
Banned
Cooling will be quite the problem when we want to use more advanced processors for future missions.
But you cannot resolve detail. You can garner information from its spectrum, but you cannot see cloud details on the planet or sunspots on the star...except for the very nearest mega-stars. I mean, we could hardly resolve anything on pluto until we sent a craft.
SiteSeer
Member
bad logic can stay hidden on a chip for a long time, even on circuits that are extensively used. i think the intel pentium chip had a fault where one operation out of some ten billion would produce an incorrect result, obviously nasa doesn't want their deep space craft to miscalculate and 'poof' no more observations.
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