Astronomers everywhere are reportedly 'terrified' that the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) later this month could co horribly wrong. The project has already been delayed a number of times over the past couple of decades, with the latest delay coming just this week. On Tuesday, NASA confirmed that the JWST team is trying to fix "a communication issue" between the observatory and the launch vehicle system, resulting in the launch date being delayed by at least two days. While it was earlier expected to launch on December 22, it will now take off "no earlier than Friday, Dec. 24."
The JWST is primarily an infrared telescope that promises to improve infrared resolution and sensitivity over the decades-old Hubble Space Telescope that just crawled back to life earlier this month after going dark a couple of months back. The new observatory was initially supposed to launch in 2007 but the multiple delays over the years have spiraled its budget upwards from the originally-planned $500 million to over $10 billion.
While the excitement surrounding the impending launch of the JWST is palpable, a lot of the scientists associated with the project seem to be worried that the scheduled launch might not go according to plan. That's according to The New York Times, which says several of the scientists who worked on the project are "very, very anxious" about how the launch will go next week. The first major challenge for the JWST will be to slide into its designated orbit after blasting off aboard the Ariane 5 rocket, but even if that goes according to plan, bigger challenges will lie ahead.
344 "Single Points Of Failure"
Once it is secured in orbit, the flying observatory will get into prep mode to unfurl the Optical Telescope Element, which is the massive mirror that consists of 18 hexagonal mirror segments made out of gold-plated beryllium. As explained by the NYT, the JWST will have to go through a series of risky maneuvers with 344 "single points of failure" before the mirror can be set in its final position. While the scientists have no doubt taken every precaution to get these maneuvers right, the chance of something going wrong is still present, and that's what's keeping the team up at night.
Talking about how important the JWST launch is to astronomers everywhere, Yale astrophysicist Priyamvada Natarajan, said that everybody within the astronomy community will be waiting with bated breath for the launch and hoping for the best. "We are all intellectually and emotionally invested," she said. With the stakes being so high, everybody will be hoping that the launch and everything thereafter goes as planned, and accidents like the one seen last month will not be repeated.
Source: The New York Times