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This article also fails to mention that this beautiful, shiny telescope will assemble itself with atomic precision after having the snot shook out of it at seve

This article also fails to mention that this beautiful, shiny telescope will assemble itself with atomic precision after having the snot shook out of it at several G's by the launch vehicle to get it there. In exoplanet identification and characterization is where I bet the Webb will make it's place in history for the researchers. IR is a great frequency to show liquid / gaseous water in an atmosphere of an earth like planet, and if all goes well, this telescope will be able to detect that. That is something a spy satellite doesn't have to do, have decent resolution for items next to suns many orders of magnitude larger and brigher than they are.

rootbear 11y ago
All of NASA will be on sedatives until this thing unfolds itself successfully. It's even more scary than the Curiosity sky crane landing system.
- topspin 11y ago
  JWST seems like too much for NASA given the record. Galileo's high-gain antenna deployment failure, Hubble optics flaws, numerous near fatal problems with GP-B, MCO burning up... all of these and more speak to NASA's track record with complex space observatories. At L2 JWST will be beyond the reach of astronauts at the time it's launched, so all this stuff; cryocoolers, folded sunshield, folded reflector, etc. have to `just work' with no opportunity for repairs. It just doesn't seem likely. I desperately want it to work, but if it were up to me I'd trade it in for a large but mechanically simple optical interferometer, launched by spacex or whomever, bolted together at the IIS and operated from a serviceable orbit. That would be a lot closer to what one should expect of NASA.
  - rootbear 11y ago
    I don't think it's possible to do the science they want JWST to do unless you get out to L2 or beyond. They are basically measuring heat, and Earth puts out a lot of that. And they want to be in an orbit that doesn't pass into shadow, for reasons of solar power. I understand, and somewhat share, your concerns, but JWST is designed the way it is because that's how it has to be done to accomplish its goals.

rootbear 11y ago

All of NASA will be on sedatives until this thing unfolds itself successfully. It's even more scary than the Curiosity sky crane landing system.

topspin 11y ago
JWST seems like too much for NASA given the record. Galileo's high-gain antenna deployment failure, Hubble optics flaws, numerous near fatal problems with GP-B, MCO burning up... all of these and more speak to NASA's track record with complex space observatories. At L2 JWST will be beyond the reach of astronauts at the time it's launched, so all this stuff; cryocoolers, folded sunshield, folded reflector, etc. have to `just work' with no opportunity for repairs. It just doesn't seem likely. I desperately want it to work, but if it were up to me I'd trade it in for a large but mechanically simple optical interferometer, launched by spacex or whomever, bolted together at the IIS and operated from a serviceable orbit. That would be a lot closer to what one should expect of NASA.
- rootbear 11y ago
  I don't think it's possible to do the science they want JWST to do unless you get out to L2 or beyond. They are basically measuring heat, and Earth puts out a lot of that. And they want to be in an orbit that doesn't pass into shadow, for reasons of solar power. I understand, and somewhat share, your concerns, but JWST is designed the way it is because that's how it has to be done to accomplish its goals.