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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: 117 75.0%

  • No. I think something will fail. (no way to fix)

    Votes: 11 7.1%

  • Shepard.

    Votes: 28 17.9%
  • Total voters
    156
Portugeezer

Portugeezer

Member


With a communications glitch resolved, NASA and the European Space Agency have rescheduled the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope on an Ariane 5 for Dec. 24.

While a formal announcement from NASA and ESA was still pending as of late Dec. 17, various sources, including the Space Telescope Science Institute, said that they had rescheduled the launch for Dec. 24 at 7:20 a.m. Eastern after the communications problem between the spacecraft and ground equipment delayed the launch. The agencies finally publicly confirmed the new launch date early Dec. 18 after encapsulation of JWST within the Ariane 5 payload fairing was complete.

spacenews.com

JWST launch rescheduled for Dec. 24

With a communications glitch resolved, NASA and ESA have rescheduled the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope on an Ariane 5 for Dec. 24.
spacenews.com spacenews.com



Been a long time coming, I swear I have been hearing about this telescope for about a decade as if it was only a few years away.

Now the time is finally here.
 
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EviLore

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
Cool that they're getting it in before the end of the year, wasn't expecting it. This will be a major leap forward for astronomy.



hhtPdra.jpg
 
Aggelos

Aggelos

Member
The time has come.
Imagine somebody back in the late '90s, after the awesome stuff that the Hubble had produced, looking forward to the successor of the Hubble telescope.. Back then they would say that they planned to launch it in 2007.
Imagine how many years they must have waited to see this baby launch.

But alas, delays, redesigns, checks, tests, audits, budget ballooning, and whatnot, and there it is... We're here in December 2021, and all things look good for launch, at last.
 
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Diatribe1974

Diatribe1974

Member
Anyone who takes the time to read up on how powerful this thing is (compared to how we look at what the Hubble does for us) will be blown away. Plus with how much further out it's going to be is going to help give even more to the results as time goes by.
 
Hawking Radiation

Hawking Radiation

Member
Diatribe1974 said:
Anyone who takes the time to read up on how powerful this thing is (compared to how we look at what the Hubble does for us) will be blown away. Plus with how much further out it's going to be is going to help give even more to the results as time goes by.
Click to expand...
Consider the below image is the farthest thing in space that Hubble was able to image. This is at 13.4 billion light-years away.
Goods-N-GN-z11-1200x971.jpg



I would like to think Webb will be able to resolve this thing as if it was only 100 million light years away.

We should easily be able to get this kind of image quality at 13 billion light years with Webb:
1086.jpg
 
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Hawking Radiation

Hawking Radiation

Member
sinnergy said:
Looking forward to the imagery! There’s is some Dutch tech in it .. was laying there for years , redesigned .. MIRI part.
Click to expand...
Interesting tech is Miri. Read up about it last night. Both US and ESA had a hand in it. Should make its way to Webb's eventual successor which likely looks to be The Large UV/Optical/IR Surveyor (LUVOIR).
 
Con-Z-epT

Con-Z-epT

Member
OmegaSupreme said:
Can anyone point to an article or video that further explains how much better this will be than Hubble?
Click to expand...
www.jwst.nasa.gov

Hubble vs. Webb - NASA Science

Overview In 1675, famed physicist and mathematician, Isaac Newton, penned a letter to his contemporary and rival, polymath Robert Hooke. In that letter, Newton wrote what would become one of his most famous remarks: “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Over...
www.jwst.nasa.gov www.jwst.nasa.gov
 
Hawking Radiation

Hawking Radiation

Member
DeafTourette said:
So this will allow us to see exoplanets, right? I have been hearing about such a telescope for almost 20 years!
Click to expand...
Webb will be able to study the atmospheric compositions of exoplanets. Could indirectly find alien life that way.

I'm excited for this the most because scientists have their eyes set on the TRAPPIST-1 system of seven planets. 3 of them orbiting in the habitable zone of the parent star and this system is not that far away at 40 light years. Professor Natalie Batalha and her daughter are co-leading the exoplanet study on Webb. Can't imagine how many people have booked time slots to use this observatory. I'd imagine there being hundreds of scientists who have reserved time on Webb. Only negative is that Webb life-span will only be up to 10 years compared to Hubble that's been in operation for decades now.

NASA’s Webb Will Seek Atmospheres around Potentially Habitable Exoplanets
 
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Con-Z-epT

Con-Z-epT

Member
Hawking Radiation said:
Only negative is that Webb life-span will only be up to 10 years compared to Hubble that's been in operation for decades now.
Click to expand...
But didn't Hubble also outstayed its initial lifespan? With this kind of craftsmanship, who knows how long it will hold? On the other hand it is much more complicated in its overall design.
 
Lord Panda

Lord Panda

The Sea is Always Right
This is going to be incredible, and I hope they get to L2 in one piece. Can’t wait until we start seeing some pictures in 2022.
 
IDKFA

IDKFA

Member
Fingers crossed it all goes well.

The launch is risky enough, but then it has to safely get to the L2 point and after that it has to deploy. If just one one thing goes wrong then NASA can't send anyone to fix it like they did with Hubble. If this doesn't go without a hitch, then that's 10bn dollars and decades of work down the drain.

However, if everything goes to plan, this usher in a new age of cosmology. We'll be able to see the first galaxies that formed, look for potential signs of life on other worlds and study the formation and evolution of galaxies.
 
M

MadAnon

Member
Hawking Radiation said:
Consider the below image is the farthest thing in space that Hubble was able to image. This is at 13.4 billion light-years away.
Goods-N-GN-z11-1200x971.jpg



I would like to think Webb will be able to resolve this thing as if it was only 100 million light years away.

We should easily be able to get this kind of image quality at 13 billion light years with Webb:
1086.jpg
Click to expand...
Webb's optical resolution is actually worse than Hubble's.
 
Sakura

Sakura

Member
Con-Z-epT said:
But didn't Hubble also outstayed its initial lifespan? With this kind of craftsmanship, who knows how long it will hold? On the other hand it is much more complicated in its overall design.
Click to expand...
From what I understand, its orbit isn't stable, and will need to make constant adjustments. But it only has enough fuel for 10 years max.
They also cannot send anyone up to fix it, unlike the Hubble, which has been serviced 5 times. The Hubble will likely outlast the JWST.
 
D

Dazrael

Member
Sakura said:
From what I understand, its orbit isn't stable, and will need to make constant adjustments. But it only has enough fuel for 10 years max.
They also cannot send anyone up to fix it, unlike the Hubble, which has been serviced 5 times. The Hubble will likely outlast the JWST.
Click to expand...
I thought that was the point of putting it at L2, because it is a stable point in space.
 
Insane Metal

Insane Metal

Member
I'm 36 and I've been keeping up with the news on JWST for what seems like my whole life. Can't wait to see what new discoveries it'll bring and also what other misteries.

I know there are literally hundreds of ways this could go wrong but I seriously hope nothing bad happens. Can you imagine how many scientists have spent their whole careers working on this and improving on existing tech as well as creating new tech just for this? This thing is massive and not just in size.
 
Sakura

Sakura

Member
Dazrael said:
I thought that was the point of putting it at L2, because it is a stable point in space.
Click to expand...
No, the L2 point is semi-stable. From wikipedia
"The points L1, L2, and L3 are positions of unstable equilibrium. Any object orbiting at L1, L2, or L3 will tend to fall out of orbit; it is therefore rare to find natural objects there, and spacecraft inhabiting these areas must employ station keeping in order to maintain their position."
The JWST only has a finite amount of fuel, and will need to make numerous corrections every year.
If they end up using a lot of fuel just to get it into orbit around L2, then it may only have a lifespan of 5 years.
10 years is the best case scenario iirc.
 
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haxan7

haxan7

Volunteered as Tribute
A question that’s come to my mind is:

If the worst case scenario happens and it blows up on the launchpad (god forbid), how much of the project would actually be lost?

Obviously they’d have to rebuild everything. But all the science and engineering man hours, new developments, etc that went into this means they wouldn’t be going back to square one. Would it be 5 years lost? 10? 1?
 
Hawking Radiation

Hawking Radiation

Member
Con-Z-epT said:
But didn't Hubble also outstayed its initial lifespan? With this kind of craftsmanship, who knows how long it will hold? On the other hand it is much more complicated in its overall design.
Click to expand...
Hubble is in near earth orbit. It can be repaired, upgraded by astronaughts. Webb is at a point in space far beyond the moon which is too far for any repair, upgrade and most importantly refuelling missions.

However Nasa is in planning some remote robotic refueling tech for Webb that should be ready within the 10 year lifespan . I've always thought the 10 year life cycle is too short for such an expensive intrument and it would be a complete waste of money not to extend the mission to at least the same length of service as Hubble.
5 years science with this thing was always a joke. They're likely going to discover so much new shit since they can now touch that 13 billion light year distance that any follow up science will not be possible in that short time frame.
 
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