NASA Delays James Webb Space Telescope To October 2021 (theguardian.com) 21
NASA has announced that the often delayed James Webb space telescope (JWST) is to be delayed once more. Instead of a launch on 30 March 2021, the mission has now slipped to 31 October 2021. From a report: The seven-month delay is the result of impacts from the coronavirus pandemic, as well as technical challenges. The spacecraft is currently being tested at Northrop Grumman, NASA's main industrial partner on the mission, in Redondo Beach, California. A recently completed risk assessment exercise recommended the delay. Once ready, JWST will be transported to Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, where it will be launched by the European Space Agency on an Ariane 5 ECA rocket. Touted as the successor to the Hubble space telescope, JWST has had a troubled development characterised by major cost overruns and delays. Development work started in the late 1990s, with a launch date set for 2007.
Whatever (Score:2)
Hope they've learned from this... (Score:2)
With all the time this thing has taken I hope NASA has a ig knowledge base to build more of this style of telescope again regardless of it works. As I understand it much of the trouble has been the origami folding system it has to employ to stuff the whole thing in an Ariane 5 fairing (5.4m). With Starship (9m) and New Glenn (7m) on the horizon one would hope NASA can build a similar or even bigger version for much cheaper the second time around (why build one when you can build 2 for twice the price). I
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The folding mirror is not the hardest part. The origami comes in for the secondary mirror and the sunshield, both of which won't fit unfolded in a Starship either.
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I think if they were going to use a larger fairing they would have just made the telescope larger, with exactly the same folding to get the largest one possible that fits in the volume.
XKCD Prediction (Score:3, Informative)
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You only say that because you haven't worked with many professional project managers.
Another delay? (Score:2)
Damn, it was just last week they announced a delay, and now another!
(aka a dupe https://science.slashdot.org/s... [slashdot.org] )
The unfurling problem (Score:4, Interesting)
JWST has supposedly being delayed for so long because of the incredibly complex process by which the instrument unfolds itself when it reaches its observing position. There are over 300 single points of failure, a jam at any one of which would render the whole mission useless. And unlike its Hubble Space Telescope predecessor, which did have a fatal problem when first set up, the unfurking point for JWST is a million miles from Earth at the Lagrange 2 point, not accessible by any crew.
If I were running the mission I would initially direct it to low Earth orbit, pausing at a point near the ISS, and do the unfurling there, where spacewalkers would be available to manually jiggle any stuck step through the process. Once JWST is all unfolded, locked for observation and tested for observing readiness, an ion engine could be used to slowly motor it into position at L2.
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The folding mechanism is just one contributing factor to the delays. JWST is advancing the state of the art in multiple places, including the mirror design, the scientific instruments, and thermal management.
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There are over 300 single points of failure
Urgh! What could possibly go wrong?
I hope you're wrong because if this is then the design is flawed and the mission pretty much doomed. If there are 300 SPOFs that each have 1% chance of materializing, then the chances of the mission succeeding are about 1 in 20. At a rate of 1 in 1000 per SPOF, the chances for success is still only 74%.
We'll see (Score:2)
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Hubble was launched in 1990, designed in the 1970s mind you, and is still doing cutting edge science. It's not like an iToy
How long are the going to keep this scam going? (Score:1)
It was supposed to launch in 2007 and now here we are 2020, 10 billion US dollars in and launched pushed again until 2021. I sure hope they are upgrading the tech to keep up with the times or will that be another excuse to delay it a few more years then another billion dollars.
Am I missing something here or has this been a long term scam?
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Yes, you're missing that there is a herd of lawyers in Congress and accountants in OMB pretending they know how to manage an engineering program.
Re: How long are the going to keep this scam going (Score:2)
Fuck off, Huckabee.
How long is the scam of giving as much to the military as you are in debt and as you cut taxes for precisely those who need it the least while cutting education going now?
Money the military openly says they do not even need or want!
This is a first time project. You can't build this from off the shelf parts, nor half-ass it when it's going to be millions of miles from the repair shop, nor launch at an arbitrary date.
Setting a, by definition arbitrary finishing date is ridiculous. As ridicu
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Oh great another party politics moron. I do not agree with spending more on the military and where are these cuts to education you talk about, we need more cuts. Do you have any idea how much money the schools are getting at every level of government? Why do you want to make me pay for your kids? Why should I have to cut back on groceries to pay for your kids through outrageous school property taxes. Renter? Wonder why the rents or so damn high, it is because of jackasses like you always demanding more
Dupe. (Score:1)
Do your job, "editors"!