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James Webb space telescope (JWST) launch scheduled for 24th of December.

Will JWST successfully deploy in space?

  • Yes. Good chance it goes well.

    Votes: 123 74.1%
  • No. I think something will fail. (no way to fix)

    Votes: 11 6.6%
  • Shepard.

    Votes: 32 19.3%

  • Total voters
    166
  • Poll closed .

The Webb mission operations team has given the ‘go-ahead’ to move forward with the extension of its starboard primary mirror panel. This is the last of the major deployments on the observatory, and its completion will set the stage for the remaining five and a half months of commissioning, which consist of settling into stable operating temperature, aligning the mirrors, and calibrating the science instruments.

Like Buggy Loop Buggy Loop said, can't believe how well it's going. Holy crap! That's what testing to exhaustion gets you.
 

Buggy Loop

Member
The calibration schedule:

JWST-comissioning-v10-01.png
 

Buggy Loop

Member
Any chance on accidental discoveries during the calibration? Or is it really 6 months of waiting now.

Happy surprises can always happen. They might release a few shots before final calibration if it already looks sharper than Hubble before it’s even done for example.

One of the first planned scientific shot and benchmark they want to do is to look at the Hubble deep field region and to make a comparison. Should be mind blowing when they’re fully calibrated.
 
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haxan7

Volunteered as Tribute
Warp Drive =



Or Stephen Kings’s The Jaunt, where your mind is awake and self aware, and unable to die for billions of years (if you jaunt while concious)
I can't think of any concept more terrifying than that. Except maybe being in extreme physical pain for the billions of years.
 
Happy surprises can always happen. They might release a few shots before final calibration if it already looks sharper than Hubble before it’s even done for example.

One of the first plane scientific shot and benchmark they want to do is to look at the Hubble deep field region and to make a comparison. Should be mind blowing when they’re fully calibrated.

The detail they're going to pull out of this galaxy is going to be insane, the most distant ever seen. Personally can't wait to see the Webb ultra deep field.

GNz11.png
 
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Buggy Loop

Member
Unless they fuck up the entry to L2 (highly unlikely), Ariane 5’s launch went so well that they had to make less corrections for JWST’s trajectory that it effectively doubled the lifespan of JWST from 10 years to 20 years 😁


Hopefully by that time we can send refueling drones to L2 to extend it even further.
 
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MastaKiiLA

Member
The Ariane 5 had a perfect launch, but NASA was probably really conservative in their estimates too. Or, it could be that the difference between a short mission and a long mission fuel-wise is really tight. So that perfect launch trajectory might have been like hitting the jackpot. Amazing news! I can't wait for the first images, eventhough it's still so far away.
 

Buggy Loop

Member
It still perplexes me how we can receive signals from something 1.5 million kilometers away

Speed is not the problem, 5 secs delay only. Receiving/transmission of course is a bit more problematic but not at those distances with their large antennas. I mean, we communicated with rovers on mars at 342.8 million km.

They’re still communicating with Voyager 2 which is like >18 billion km. Now that..
 
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Speed is not the problem, 5 secs delay only. Receiving/transmission of course is a bit more problematic but not at those distances with their large antennas. I mean, we communicated with rovers on mars at 342.8 million km.

They’re still communicating with Voyager 2 which is like >18 billion km. Now that..

How is that even possible
 

Kev Kev

Member


Very informative interview. Talk about capabilities and what they expect to get from Webb.

Not sure if already posted..

ya know im not even really that into this stuff, not like some of you, at least. but this was super interesting and educational and i have to recommend it to anyone else who is curious, even if youre a dodo like me lol. thanks for sharing!
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
How is that even possible
You can see the light from distant stars right? That light is information that your eyes can pick up. Radio waves are the same electromagnetic radiation, but at a different frequency. Our eyes can't detect those frequencies, but we have other types of instruments that can.

If you can see it, you can transmit data. How long that's going to take, and the bandwidth and data integrity... well that's another story.
 
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