{"id":12184,"date":"2020-10-07T20:30:08","date_gmt":"2020-10-07T12:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/jwst-completes-tests-to-simulate-rigors-of-launch\/"},"modified":"2020-10-07T20:30:08","modified_gmt":"2020-10-07T12:30:08","slug":"jwst-completes-tests-to-simulate-rigors-of-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/jwst-completes-tests-to-simulate-rigors-of-launch\/","title":{"rendered":"JWST completes tests to simulate rigors of launch"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The fully-assembled James Webb Space Telescope is lifted at a Northrop Grumman facility in Redondo Beach, California, during recent environmental testing. Credit: NASA\/Chris Gunn<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The fully-assembled James Webb Space Telescope has completed testing in Southern California to verify the $10 billion mission can withstand the sound and shaking it will see during launch scheduled late next year on a European Ariane 5 rocket.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith completion of its environmental tests, #NASAWebb <\/span>has hit a monumental milestone & has proven it can endure the deafening noise, jarring shakes & vibrations experienced during launch,\u201d tweeted Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA\u2019s science mission directorate.<\/span><\/p>\n

The environmental testing at a Northrop Grumman facility in Redondo Beach, California, subjected the Webb observatory to the rigors of launch. Northrop Grumman and NASA teams first put the observatory through an acoustic test to simulate the sound energy it will see during launch.<\/p>\n

Engineers blasted the observatory with high-frequency sound pressure levels above 140 decibels, \u201cwith a spectrum tuned to the specific signature of the Ariane 5 rocket it will ride to space.\u201d Sensors inside the acoustic test chamber measured nearly 600 individual channels of motion data, roughly six times more than in a typical spacecraft acoustic and vibration test campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe complex size and shape of the observatory required considerably more measurement to ensure success,\u201d NASA said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Then engineers moved JWST \u2014 clad inside a mobile clean room to protect its sensitive mirrors, instruments, and other spacecraft systems \u2014 to a different facility on the Northrop Grumman factory and placed it on a vibration table. The table shook the observatory in vertical and horizontal axes to check its ability to weather the lower-frequency energy imparted during a rocket launch.<\/p>\n

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The fully-assembled James Webb Space Telescope is lifted at a Northrop Grumman facility in Redondo Beach, California, during recent environmental testing. Credit: NASA\/Chris Gunn<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cEnvironmental testing demonstrates Webb\u2019s ability to survive the rocket ride to space, which is the most violent portion of its trip to orbit approximately a million miles from Earth,\u201d said Bill Ochs, Webb project manager at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. \u201cThe multinational group of individuals responsible for the execution of the acoustic and vibration test is composed of an outstanding and dedicated group of folks who are typical of the entire Webb team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Individual elements of the spacecraft and the telescope had passed similar environment tests before, but the recent milestones marked the first time the entire observatory went through full-scale acoustic and vibration testing.<\/p>\n

Segments of the observatory, such as its spacecraft platform and telescope, have also completed thermal vacuum testing to check their performance under the extreme temperature swings they will see in the airless environment of deep space.<\/p>\n

In the months before starting the environmental tests, engineers completed a comprehensive systems test on Webb and a test of the mission\u2019s ground infrastructure.<\/p>\n

NASA and Northrop Grumman performed the environmental tests with Webb in its launch configuration, with its mirrors, sunshield and solar panels folded up as they will be positioned to fit inside the envelope of the Ariane 5 rocket.<\/p>\n

In the coming months, engineers will deploy the observatory into its operational configuration to check that actuators and mechanisms are still in good shape after weathering the acoustic and vibration testing. The deployments will include opening Webb\u2019s segmented 21.3-foot-diameter (6.5-meter), and unfurling the mission\u2019s five-layer thermal sunshield to the size of a tennis court.<\/p>\n