“Sunflower flower” worth $ 8.8 billion is about to be launched into space by NASA

The “successor to Hubble” is on the way. The James Webb Telescope project, which was launched 30 years ago and after many delays, now has an official departure date on October 31, 2021.

The giant Telescope was originally intended to be launched on 31 March 2021, but was later canceled because the Covid-19 pandemic affected its preparation. Even so, functional tests were finally completed at the Northrop Grumman plant, California. When launched into space and completed the assembly, this telescope will open in the shape of a giant flower so scientists can see the universe.

Size comparison between Hubble glasses and James Webb glasses

While the Hubble Telescope is a circular mirror 2.4m in diameter, James Webb is 18 hexagonal mirrors assembled together, with a main diameter up to 6.5m. The mirrors are housed in an origami structure that will open up when reaching the intended location in space.

To get there, James Webb would have to travel 1.5 million kilometers to reach L2 or the second Lagrange Point – where it would be at a fixed position relative to the Sun and Earth. This distance is four times farther than from Earth to the Moon.

Designed and funded by NASA, the European aerospace agency ESA and the Canadian Space Agency CSA, James Webb is the most complex, most expensive space science telescope project ever deployed to now on.

Compared with Hubble, the biggest advantage of James Webb is the ability to detect weak infrared light signals. This also means the ability to look the furthest back into the history of the universe and hopefully help solve mysteries in the solar system, study planets outside the system and probe structure. architecture, origin of the Universe.

So far, recent tests confirm that the electronics inside James Webb are still working correctly and that four scientific tools can both send and receive data on the same network they will be using. out space.

After completing the final tests, Webb will travel to South America to prepare for the launch in October here. That is when the scientists and the team involved in the project will have to hold their breath when their $ 8.8 billion dream is placed on 500 tons of propellant to be launched into space.

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