Tag: NASA

UK celebrates successful launch of James Webb Space Telescope

The once-in-a-generation James Webb Space Telescope launched on Christmas Day, with scientists and engineers across the UK playing a vital role in the mission.

The telescope, known as ‘Webb’, blasted off from the Arianespace spaceport in French Guiana on 25 December 2021 at 12:20 pm – the culmination of decades of scientific collaboration.

The mission is led by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency, with the UK playing a major role by leading the European consortium, which designed, built and tested one of the four main science instruments, working closely with partners in the US.

Science Minister George Freeman said: “Today is a monumental milestone for international and UK space science: the Webb Space Telescope will allow us to go further and deeper to explore and discover our planetary universe.

“The project draws heavily on the world-class expertise of top UK scientists and engineers who were able to deliver vital pieces of this complex and powerful telescope.

“Being at the heart of this international project showcases the innovative talent of the UK’s world-leading scientists and engineers, and emphasises our position as a global science powerhouse.”

Seeing the Universe

The telescope is set to redefine our understanding of the cosmos and unveil some of the secrets of the distant Universe.

Webb will peer through dusty clouds in space to allow scientists to determine how the first galaxies were formed and will see our own solar system in whole new ways and in never-before-seen detail.

Scientists and engineers in the UK were crucial to the development and launch of the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), which will be able to see the faint light from the most distant stars, effectively looking further back in time than ever before, and to peer through dust and gas to spot stars being born.

JWST’s Mid Infrared Instrument (MIRI), for which the UK leads the European Consortium. Credit: STFC RAL Space

The MIRI development has been funded by the UK Space Agency and the Science and Technology Facilities Council, part of UK Research and Innovation, and ESA.

Caroline Harper, Head of Space Science at the UK Space Agency, said: “Webb is set to re-write the text books on astronomy, showing us things about the universe we have never been able to see before.  I am excited to see the fascinating discoveries the spacecraft makes as it reveals the evolution of the universe.

“The UK has played a crucial role in this once-in-a-generation mission, developing the Mid-Infrared Instrument, which will examine the physical and chemical properties of objects in the early universe in greater detail than ever.

“This has been a fantastic example of academic-industry partnership, showcasing the skills and expertise of our scientists and engineers.”

Webb in the UK

MIRI will deliver a host of capabilities, boasting a spectrograph to break up light into its constituent wavelengths, a coronagraph to block starlight and look at fainter objects next to stars, and a camera to take pictures.

MIRI was designed, built, and tested by a European Consortium of 10 member countries led by the UK, in partnership with the US. The European contribution is led by Professor Gillian Wright MBE of STFC’s UK Astronomy Technology Centre (UKATC), and includes STFC RAL Space, University of Leicester, and Airbus UK.

The UK’s lead role in the instrument involves taking responsibility for the overall design, science performance, and the mechanical, thermal and optical design, along with the assembly, integration, testing and calibration software.

The UK (UK Space Agency since 2011 and STFC) has invested almost £20 million in the development phase of MIRI and has continued to support essential post-delivery testing, integration, calibration and characterisation activities by the UK MIRI team.

Intégration EPC au BIL, le 06/11/2021. | EPC integration at BIL. 11/06/2021.

Professor Gillian Wright, European Principal Investigator for MIRI and Director of UKATC, said: “To see Webb launch, with MIRI on board, after more than two decades is a seminal moment.

“MIRI is a special instrument, for the breadth of its science, the team that built it, and being the coolest instrument on Webb. The MIRI team rose to the challenges and brought some exquisite engineering solutions to make it a reality.

“The Webb mission as a whole is an amazing technological breakthrough in scale and complexity, and this extends to the instruments, including MIRI.   With the launch, all of us are excitedly anticipating the first MIRI data and the new view of the universe we will have.”

What’s next for Webb

Credit: NASA

Although Webb has successfully launched, its journey is only just beginning.

The giant mirror for the telescope had to be launched as 18 segments folded inside the launch vehicle and it must be unfolded, and all the segments perfectly aligned, in space. A huge sunshield the size of a tennis court is needed to keep the instruments cold enough to work and this must also be unfurled in space.

Webb will then go on a month-long journey to its destination, a million miles from Earth.

In the six months after launch, the observatory commissioning will take place – with first results expected in the summer of 2022.

NASA’s Perseverance: seeking life on Mars

Less than a day after NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover successfully landed on the surface of Mars, engineers and scientists at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California were hard at work, awaiting the next transmissions from Perseverance.

As data gradually came in, relayed by several spacecraft orbiting the Red Planet, the Perseverance team were relieved to see the rover’s health reports, which showed everything appeared to be working as expected.

Adding to the excitement was a high-resolution image taken during the rover’s landing. While NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover sent back a stop-motion movie of its descent, Perseverance’s cameras are intended to capture video of its touchdown and this new still image was taken from that footage, which is still being relayed to Earth and processed.

Unlike with past rovers, the majority of Perseverance’s cameras capture images in color. After landing, two of the Hazard Cameras (Hazcams) captured views from the front and rear of the rover, showing one of its wheels in the Martian dirt (above).

Perseverance got a close-up from NASA’s eye in the sky, as well: NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance. Orbiter, which used a special high-resolution camera to capture the spacecraft sailing into Jezero Crater, with its parachute trailing behind. The High Resolution Camera Experiment (HiRISE) camera did the same for Curiosity in 2012. JPL leads the orbiter’s mission, while the HiRISE instrument is led by the University of Arizona.

Several pyrotechnic charges are expected to fire later on Friday, releasing Perseverance’s mast (the “head” of the rover) from where it is fixed on the rover’s deck.

The Navigation Cameras (Navcams), which are used for driving, share space on the mast with two science cameras: the zoomable Mastcam-Z and a laser instrument called SuperCam. The mast is scheduled to be raised Saturday, Feb. 20, after which the Navcams are expected to take panoramas of the rover’s deck and its surroundings.

In the days to come, engineers will pore over the rover’s system data, updating its software and beginning to test its various instruments.

In the following weeks, Perseverance will test its robotic arm and take its first, short drive. It will be at least one or two months until Perseverance will find a flat location to drop off Ingenuity, the mini-helicopter attached to the rover’s belly, and even longer before it finally hits the road, beginning its science mission and searching for its first sample of Martian rock and sediment.

More About the Mission

A primary objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology research, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith, paving the way for human exploration of the Red Planet.

Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), will send spacecraft to Mars to collect these cached samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.

JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars 2020 Perseverance mission and the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter technology demonstration for NASA.

For more about Perseverance, go to:

https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/

and

https://nasa.gov/perseverance

Images: NASA

The song of Mars: sounds from The Red Planet

A UK instrument has captured the first sounds ever recorded directly from Mars.

The NASA InSight lander, which is supported by the UK Space Agency, has recorded a haunting, low rumble caused by vibrations from the wind. These vibrations were detected by an ultra-sensitive seismometer, developed in the UK, and an air pressure sensor sitting on the lander’s deck. Continue reading The song of Mars: sounds from The Red Planet

Next stop Mars: InSight to study earthquakes on the Red Planet

A new mission to Mars involving UK science will be the first to study the heart of the Red Planet and measure ‘Marsquakes’ from its surface. The NASA InSight mission, which stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, launched from California aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket at 12.05pm (BST) yesterday (above). Continue reading Next stop Mars: InSight to study earthquakes on the Red Planet

Cassini: twenty year space odyssey ends today

After two decades in space, the remarkable journey of the Cassini spacecraft comes to a dramatic end this afternoon. Having used almost every bit of fuel it carried to Saturn, operators are plunging Cassini into the planet to ensure Saturn’s moons will remain pristine for future exploration. Continue reading Cassini: twenty year space odyssey ends today