JWST Countdown To Terror 😳

[discardedastro]

29 minutes ago, Ags said:

In space they can't hear you PARTY!!!!

 

[tomato]

Here is my capture from last night, I would love to have had a couple of the naysaying "its all a hoax" brigade with me during the capture and processing process, but I guess they have a retort for everything.

 

 

[johninderby]

Obviously it’s all CGI 😁

In this case CGI would stand for Completely Gormless Idiots. 🙄

 

[kirkster501]

Tensioning of the sunshield moved to tomorrow - 3rd Jan - as the team want to know more about how the spacecraft operates in space before embarking on the tensioning.

Deployment Timeline Adjusted as Team Focuses on Observatory Operations – James Webb Space Telescope (nasa.gov)

[Mr Spock]

Heat shield works...

 

[kirkster501]

Just now, Mr Spock said:

Heat shield works...

 

Yes I saw that on the JWST NASA website. To get to the 7 Kelvin that the instruments require the vacuum between each membrane is essential, so even though the sunshield even as is is indeed providing some shielding (and some sort of plan B if tensioning failed), it is not enough to reach the required cryogenic temperatures that JWST needs for its stated science objectives.

[Mr Spock]

That's changed a lot since yesterday. I suspect it will keep dropping as time goes on but will only really be effective once it's in its final orbit.

[tomato]

7 K, I didn’t know what figure they were aiming for,  but of course as it’s looking for extremely faint IR radiation, it would have to be. Interstellar space is 3K, so it is clearly designed to be a very efficient heat shield. 

[Pixies]

For those of you using Twitter, here's an interesting thread from the Senior Advisor for Science & Exploration at the European Space Agency, about the need for the sunshield: 

https://twitter.com/markmccaughrean/status/1477213435087761409

 

[Gfamily]

17 hours ago, Pixies said:

For those of you using Twitter, here's an interesting thread from the Senior Advisor for Science & Exploration at the European Space Agency, about the need for the sunshield: 

https://twitter.com/markmccaughrean/status/1477213435087761409

 

Mark is a great guy and well worth following on Twitter.

We first came across him at Bluedot Festival when he gave one of the early talks in one of the tents.

There were technical problems with the screens, and he was able to gave an absolutely flawless first half of his talk without them. When the technical team managed to get the screen working, he quickly ran through the slides and effortlessly picked up the talk to completion. A real Pro.

We saw him again at the Solarsphere festival the year later and had a great chat with him in the bar afterwards.

[kirkster501]

There have been some issues with the solar panel subsystem and the motors that drive the sunshield tensioning are out of tolerance with expected temperatures.  They have mocked this up on the JWST simulator.  They have repositioned JWST attitude to the sun and this has sorted it out now.   They are currently tensioning membrane 1.

[kirkster501]

^^^^They will do membranes 2 and 3 tomorrow (Tuesday) and 4 and 5 on Wednesday.

[kirkster501]

Listen live now:

 

[kirkster501]

First membrane of the sunshield has been tensioned. Same motors for the other four so looking good. Fingers crossed 🤞🏻 

[Stu]

Not sure if this has been posted, but JWST has now been added to SkySafari Plus and Pro. If you update the Minor Orbit Body Data which is found at the bottom of the Solar System page, you will then be able to search for and centre JWST. It is showing as mag 24 currently, not sure if that is correct?

[johninderby]

Has been added to Luminos Pro but the info is a bit suspect at the moment. Think there is some updating to be done. 🤔

Edited January 4, 2022 by johninderby

[Laurieast]

Wondered what was going on then!, forgot I had orbit and path ON. 

Edited January 4, 2022 by Laurieast

[dannybgoode]

Layers 2 & 3 also tensioned successfully.  They're taking a break and then layers 4 & 5 tomorrow

[Stu]

51 minutes ago, dannybgoode said:

Layers 2 & 3 also tensioned successfully.  They're taking a break and then layers 4 & 5 tomorrow

Excellent news 👍

[Zermelo]

3 hours ago, Stu said:

JWST has now been added to SkySafari Plus

excellent

3 hours ago, Stu said:

It is showing as mag 24

ah, a bit beyond the reach of my 6" then

[Stu]

3 hours ago, johninderby said:

Has been added to Luminos Pro but the info is a bit suspect at the moment. Think there is some updating to be done. 🤔

Yes, Luminos seems completely wrong for JWST unfortunately.

[Stu]

1 minute ago, Zermelo said:

excellent

ah, a bit beyond the reach of my 6" then

Same for all of us really! I guess EEVA chaps would have a chance. Not sure if that figure is correct though, I thought it was brighter than that. 

[dannybgoode]

4 minutes ago, Stu said:

Excellent news 👍

Someone on another forum is related to one of the engineers who worked on the sunshield.  Apparently they are very happy with how everything is going and the pause was genuinely nothing to be concerned about.  They just wanted to take their time and make sure everything was as optimal as it could be.  The deployment schedule has flexibility built in so they decided to use it...

[johninderby]

6 minutes ago, Stu said:

Yes, Luminos seems completely wrong for JWST unfortunately.

Will keep an eye on it and see what happens. 

[Stu]

14 minutes ago, dannybgoode said:

Someone on another forum is related to one of the engineers who worked on the sunshield.  Apparently they are very happy with how everything is going and the pause was genuinely nothing to be concerned about.  They just wanted to take their time and make sure everything was as optimal as it could be.  The deployment schedule has flexibility built in so they decided to use it...

I’m sure they are delighted with the way things are going, and quite rightly are taking breaks or being cautious where they feel they need to.