Try NASA’s new house telescope

WTOP/Greg Redfern

WTOP/Greg Redfern

WTOP/Greg Redfern

WTOP/Greg Redfern

WTOP/Greg Redfern

Next week, the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center can be unveiling its latest house telescope: the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

The Roman telescope was initially referred to as the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) when NASA announced the project in February 2016.

NASA said in May 2020 it was “naming its next-generation space telescope currently under development, the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), in honor of Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first chief astronomer, who paved the way for space telescopes focused on the broader universe.”

Roman is taken into account the “mother” of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, which launched into house with the Space Shuttle Discovery in April 1990.

Delivered to Goddard in November 2024, the Optical Telescope Assembly, which features a 7.9-foot (2.4-meter) main mirror, 9 extra mirrors and supporting constructions and electronics, was designed and constructed by L3Harris Technologies in Rochester, New York.

“The assembly incorporates key optics (including the primary mirror) that were made available to NASA by the National Reconnaissance Office. The team at L3Harris then reshaped the mirror and built upon the inherited hardware to ensure it would meet Roman’s specifications for expansive, sensitive infrared observations,” NASA said in 2024.

I had the chance to go to Goddard Space Flight Center in early January and spoke with Jamie Dunn, the Roman Telescope mission supervisor, in addition to seeing the telescope within the enormous clear room.

Dunn mentioned the telescope was within the ultimate phases of testing and 100% full. Testing can be ending up and NASA plans to ship the Roman to Kennedy Space Center in Florida this summer time.

The Roman can be launched from Kennedy Space Center utilizing a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. In a news release, NASA indicated the launch of the Roman “is planned as early as this fall.”

Dunn mentioned his largest problem since he joined the Roman group in 2018 was maintaining the mission on monitor through the COVID-19 pandemic. Challenges abounded because the virus took maintain and triggered personnel and logistical points all over the place. Nonetheless, he and his group have been in a position to hold working all through the disaster.

At its 2023 peak, the development of the Roman Space Telescope concerned a thousand GSFC personnel with a whole bunch extra contractors and personnel from the Space Telescope Science Institute.

Goddard constructed the optical telescope factor of the James Webb Space Telescope, and by doing so acquired invaluable expertise that was utilized to the Roman Space Telescope. Dunn described the Goddard testing of the Roman Space Telescope as similar to that of JWST.

I requested Dunn what number of “single points of failure” — an occasion which if not efficiently accomplished would result in full mission failure — the Roman Space Telescope has in comparison with JWST’s 300-plus. He defined that Roman is much easier than JWST, as Roman Space Telescope doesn’t must “unfold,” has no cryocooler and is much smaller. As a end result the quantity is “less than a dozen.”

In researching the Roman Space Telescope, I found that it’s designed to be refueled robotically.

Dunn mentioned that the nominal lifetime requirement of Roman is 5 to 10 years and robotic refueling was constructed into the telescope.

He mentioned that Goddard would be the location of the Roman Space Telescope’s Mission Operations Center and that the telescope can have a MOM — or Mission Operations Manager. Dunn mentioned the Roman Space Telescope’s group was conducting coaching to arrange for the telescope’s mission.

In my briefing, it was defined that the Roman Space Telescope and JWST will overlap each other, with the brand new telescope supplementing JWST.

JWST has a really small subject of view of the universe in comparison with the Roman Space Telescope. With its extensive subject of view, the Roman Space Telescope can picture massive sections of the sky and discover new potential objects for Webb to watch. It is this huge extensive subject of view and superior imaging functionality that makes the Roman Space Telescope so thrilling.

The telescope will conduct three core surveys that “are designed to investigate some of the most profound mysteries in astrophysics while enabling expansive cosmic exploration that will revolutionize our understanding of the universe.”

Whenever astronomers have a brand new floor or space-based telescope, new devices or new theories, we at all times advance in our data of the universe. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope would make its namesake, the primary chief astronomer of NASA, very excited and proud.

Oh, the wonders we are going to see … and WTOP will hold you updated.

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