Lucy spacecraft and James Webb space telescope

[anorlunda]

Apparently, one of the solar arrays on the Lucy spacecraft failed to fully deploy.
https://scitechdaily.com/nasas-lucy...problematic-solar-array-is-75-to-95-deployed/

The fault may not be fatal. They may have enough solar power to complete the mission.

At the same time, the James Web Space telescope is said to have 300 single-point failure modes. See the video.
When I first heard that, I thought it foolish to even hope for successful deployment. So many failure modes, the inability to test in a true space environment, the complexity, the inability to send repair missions in case of a failure.

But I do not believe those NASA engineers to be fools. If they are confident of success, they must have good reasons. The trouble on Lucy rattles my optimism a bit, but does not destroy it.

So, the most suspenseful science/engineering story since Apollo 11 and Apollo 13 is coming in December. I for one will be sitting on the edge of my chair for 29 days. @mfb seems to have his finger on space news. Perhaps he'll start a thread in December that keeps us posted on developments.

By the way, 29 days is not the complete story. It will be years before James Webb is fully operational.

 

[Vanadium 50]

JWST is 14 years late and an order of magnitude over budget. In that environment it is very difficult to say even "we want more tests" much less "we want to change this part".

 

[mfb]

Including the service missions Hubble was probably more expensive.

300 single points of failure doesn't sound so bad if you consider that e.g. every major structural element is part of that list. But it will be a very interesting month for sure.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Including the service missions Hubble was probably more expensive.

Perhaps. Quite likely - there were what, five of them? But the problem is it's not their money. It belongs to the People of the United States of America. It is difficult to go to Congress and say "We know we told you 2007, and 2008, and 2009, all the way to 2021. And we know we told you $1B, and $2B and here we are at $10B. But we need a little more money and a little more time. "

 

[anorlunda]

JWST is not the only one. There are four other space telescope projects in the works. All four of them are designed to orbit the L2 point. According to the video, all four are intended to be simpler and cheaper than the JWST; not surprising because technology marches on.

2:54 Habitable Exoplanet observatory (HabEx)
8:53 Lynx X-Ray observatory
12:00 Origins Space Telescope (OST)
17:17 Large Ultraviolet, Optical, Infrared Surveyor (LUVOIR)

 

[phinds]

'Incident' delays launch of James Webb Space Telescope

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-59388109

 

[mfb]

By 4 days, everything has been checked and the telescope is healthy.

Now the sunshield pallet deployments will happen on Dec 25 (US time).

 

[etudiant]

By 4 days, everything has been checked and the telescope is healthy.

Now the sunshield pallet deployments will happen on Dec 25 (US time).

Crossing my fingers and toes.
Mechanicals are totally unforgiving and the JWST has a lot of them.