Many years have passed since the project of James Webb, a space telescope originally called to replace the veteran and beloved Hubble. with whom he will finally share the space path for a whiletake your first steps. Recall that the project began at the end of the last century, that its initial budget was $ 500 million, and that its launch was scheduled for 2007. It was finally launched on December 24 and the project budget increased to $ 9,800 million.

James Webb, who has been challenged more than once for delays and an increase in its final price, went through difficult times when the cancellation of a project was put on the table by some politicians. Fortunately, NASA, with the support of other space agencies and other project participants they didn’t twist their arms and thanks to them, their resistance to these pressures, the largest and most impressive space telescope has become a reality.

Recall that after its launch James Webb began a journey of at least 1,500,000 kilometers, with the Lagrange point L2 as the target. Recall that this location has a very specific reason for being, namely that in this position the gravitational forces of the Earth and the Sun, combined with the centrifugal force of James Webb, find the right balance and ensure stability. binoculars in the indicated position.

The voyage lasted about a month and was seamless, so James Webb arrived at his new home at the end of January. But that was just the beginning, until then the telescope only served as a traveler, lit was time to start deploying and calibrating their mirrors and systems. The phase, which, as was already known, will last several months, because it had to be carried out with all care and maximum precision. Rushing and making a mistake in an object that is a million and a half kilometers from our planet has a bad solution.

During these months, we have seen the completion of the commissioning and deployment phases of James Webb, with each completion of one of them being celebrated as a milestone. And in that regard, even though I’ve been dedicated to technology all my life, I’m still fascinated by the milestones that come when science, engineering, and technology work hand in hand. The first images that James Webb shows us, even if it’s just tests of the calibration process that determined the perfect operation, are simply incredible.

It will take a few more days before we start to see its fruit, but the good news is that all previous work has been completed and subsequently James Webb is now fully functional and commissioning his devices. And that’s even better news, considering thatthe impact it suffered a few weeks ago, and this forced several adjustments to again guarantee the reliability of the images taken with the telescope. A good fear, which fortunately remained in fright.

The future of James Webb

More than a quarter of a century separates us, as I mentioned at the beginning of this article, from the first steps to putting James Webb into orbit, a period in which he struggled but also evolved in his design to become a masterpiece of engineering. , which already offers us an unprecedented view of the universe. Quarter century It was nothing more than the prologue of a book that is beginning to be written these days.

NASA plans to release the first images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope on July 12, 2022, and since everything seems to be going well, including adjustments after the collision, we have no reason to expect changes in this regard. A little over two weeks for the scientific community to feed on all the data provided by the telescope, and for the rest of us to enjoy the incredible views from Lagrange L2.

Although the original plans indicated ten years of life, NASA recently reported James Webb is currently accumulating much more fuel than expectedwhich means that, as in the case of the Hubble or Curiosity helicopter, its service life could be significantly extended, allowing a major amortization of the important investment involved in putting it into service.

And as for his work pace, you can say that James Webb will be up and running 24/7. When Hubble started, a to-do list was executed until all available time was completed. However, it was not long before it was clear that there were many circumstances that could delay the related projects, resulting in a period of telescope downtime. To prevent this, the agenda of James Webb reserved from the first moment, so if the scheduled task cannot be performed, the telescope will have so many outstanding tasks and will always remain active.

“Instrument commissioning and mode control”, instrument commissioning and mode control, is the current state of James Webb, as we can see on the website dedicated to the current state of the telescope, and this is the website where the first images will be published on July 12. And I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to it.