Nova-The Ultimate Space Telescope Series
James Webb Space Telescope-JWST
It took over 20 years to build, it cost more than 10 billion dollars.
The JWST is designed to peer deep into the cosmos; like no telescope ever has. It seeks infrared light from stars more than 13 billion years old.
28 feet tall, 7 tons, decades in the making.
The sun shield is the size of a tennis court.
It is folded, so it fits inside the nosecone of a rocket.
It’s an origami telescope.
An extreme machine.
344 possible single-point failures, everything must work. It took hundreds of mechanisms to deploy the satellite.
It is a million miles from Earth.
3000 times farther than the humble telescope.
Too far to fix it, if something goes wrong.
It works at minus 394 degrees Fahrenheit.
Built knowing they wouldn’t be able to service it.
Failure is not an option.
Billions of dollars over budget.
Several years were spent struggling to solve daunting problems. New materials were developed that are lightweight and strong.
Years and years of hard work finally paying off.
The future of astrophysics in this country is dependent on this telescope.
Its purpose is to find what our place is in the universe
Are we alone being one of the key questions we would like to answer?
Billions of stars mean billions of planets, there must be a planet that has life on it.
What will we discover that we weren’t expecting to discover?
Largest most innovative space telescope ever built.
Designed to peer deep into the universe; to solve some of the greatest cosmological mysteries.
It is going to be the next big thing for astrophysics.
This is the story of the next great space telescope; built on a scale never tempted before, by thousands of people who have dedicated years guiding it into space.
They had been building it since 1995. People have spent their entire careers working on this telescope.
It is the hardest and most complex telescope that humanity has ever built.
18 mirrors had to fold out and line up.
Problems when they had a shake test to simulate launch. Some screws and washers fell off.
US lawmakers have a hearing concerning Northrop contractor to build the telescope, they were drilled trying to find out what went wrong, it was delayed for 14 years.
It was 19 times the original cost.
Teams from NASA, European and Canadian space agency; were there at the launch site and came together to guide the telescope into space.
Antonella Nota the Project Scientist said:” It is really amazing to see all these teams working together. International cooperation is the key to make really great progress”.
Launched from French Guinea then controlled in Baltimore.
Over the next several months the operation will be run 24-7; it coordinates the complicated part of the mission.
Unfold tennis court size sun shield the layers are made of incredibly thin material, 1 mil thickness.
It took 8 days to unfold the sun shield.
5 layers must be unfolded and stretched tight.
The temperature reached 400 degrees Fahrenheit
Everything had to go like clockwork.
On February 3, 2022, the JWST launched, and one month after launch it had traveled a million miles.
18 segments of mirrors had to align.
It was aligned to 1/10,000 of a human hair gap.
It took 3 weeks to bring mirrors into focus
July 12, 2022, first official images.
James Webb sees parts of the universe in a wavelength that has never been seen before in this clarity.
The first official picture is a patch of sky packed with thousands of galaxies.
Some of these galaxies are 13 billion years old.
The telescope is doing what it has been designed to do.
Major funding is supplied by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
“Creating positive outcomes for future Generations”.
Housing-Simons Foundation -hsfoundations.org and other donors.
By now U are probably wondering what the JWST has to do with charity and Help. We realize that the JWST was an outstanding feat: now that the results are in, it was worth it. It cost over 10 billion dollars; it was reported 19 times over budget. Did U know that one or more of the Top 10 Billionaires (see thetop10andu.com) have had their net worth fluctuate that much each way in a month? Just think how far 10 billion dollars would go towards charity. Just think how easy it would be for the top 10 or other billionaires to give away 10 billion. Heaven forbid; they might have to sell off some assets. I know Warren Buffett and Bill Gates have given money away in various forms. Warren Buffett sponsors Foundations and there is The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (see charityandu.org)
It is hard to say how much the top 10 should be giving, but it would be nice to have an idea. Perhaps they could take over and fire up THETOPANDU INC. and be role models for others concerning what they are doing for others.
JWST had 344 possible single-point failures; everything must work. It took hundreds of mechanisms to deploy the satellite. It is located 1 million miles away and had to unfold a tennis court-sized sun shield and much more.
Can U imagine if we put one-half the effort into resolving or making great strides toward dealing with issues that have been so troublesome for humanity? Would we be prepared to spend 19x over budget to improve the lives of thousands or millions, if not billions? We don’t think so.
It is tragic to the extreme to witness so many people and other organisms suffering, but we choose not to put in half as much effort to resolve their plight and in most cases spend far less money.
Many humanitarian issues can be improved substantially or resolved if we are willing to put in the effort we should. We all know of many areas that need major improvement. I have chosen causes that I find dear, they can be found in Active Sites on anduandu.org. To name a few; causes like organ donation, missing people, and the environment. Each cause I believe
contains useful ideas. These potential andU organizations are intended to be the international organization for each discipline. Let us unite worldwide to deal with the various causes that too many people face. Ideas can be shared, and economies of scale will be improved.
With people like U, we can make it so. Let's do this!
