March 19th, 2009
Q & A with Dr. John Mather on the James Webb Space Telescope
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March 19th, 2009 at 10:39 am
Fantastic, I can't wait for the James to get going, I've been waiting for this for so long…
What wonders will it show us!
March 19th, 2009 at 11:24 am
In 1991, I went to La Paz to see the solar eclipse. I had a conversation with someone who was working on the project to fix the Hubble.
He said that it was a horrendous project. At the time, no one was sure that it would work.
March 19th, 2009 at 11:35 am
You didn't ask the most buring question: Orbiting at the Lagrange point puts it out of reach of any manned spacecraft. How will they repair or upgrade JWST?
March 19th, 2009 at 11:47 am
Aliens dude, the aliens will keep that upgraded…
March 19th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Gerald, the answer is in the interview — they're not going to be able to repair/upgrade JWST, which is why they need to get it all right the very first time.
March 19th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Awesome!!! However, the biggest test is, will it un-fold the mirror segments without any problems? Northop Grumman may have made contraptions that unfolds but this is much more complex-I wonder if they will go into Earth orbit just in case of problems,if ok, the scope can be boosted to the final L2 region.
March 19th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
As cool as GOCE looks, I think JWST looks better. We live in an exciting time for astronomy, and science in general.
March 19th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
Video link dead.
Also, don't mean to jink the project but 7 motors for each mirror segment? That just shouts complication and I hope they get it right!
March 19th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Man, I almost crapped myself just watching the *simulation* of the unfolding process. I'm going to have a dead-set coronary conniption when this thing goes up for real. I can't wait! I'm literally wishing my life away because I can't wait to see the images this thing will produce.
I'm a sad, sad science addict.
March 20th, 2009 at 12:56 am
Would it not be possible (or not very costly) to send a little sattelite with a camera to see how things are unfolding, sort of a webcam, but from outer space? It would give a good clue in case of problems…
March 20th, 2009 at 2:27 am
Couldn't they attach small droids with capabilities to repair it if something goes wrong? Kind of like iRobots?
It seems like a big risk to send it into an L2 orbit before it's completely deployed.
March 20th, 2009 at 3:56 am
Astrofiend,
I think we should be proud of our space addictions. It reminds me of a brilliant quote from, of all people, Karl Lagerfeld:
"I’m mad for books, it is a disease I won’t recover from. They are the tragedy of my life. I want to learn about everything."
Space is an even greater tragedy as we all KNOW how much more there is to learn and experience which we can't imagine yet, than will be possible during our lifetimes.
My top three space 'hits' to have before I peg it:
1) Decent images of extrasolar planets
2) Life confirmed elsewhere in the solar system
3) Manned missions to Enceladus, Europa, Titan, Triton, Saturn, Jupiter, Ganymede…. any of them, I'm not fussy. Mars would be cool but the outers are more mysterious and therefore exciting.
And a last wish for someone to finally get an interstellar probe going! Even if it doesn't make it while I'm still alive, just knowing it's out there on it's way would be very satisfying.
March 20th, 2009 at 4:07 am
so much work and cost – make you cringe just thinking about putting it on top of a rocket…
March 20th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
I'd like to Thank John for joining us here. I love this site and it's great to be treated to the real thing from the horse's mouth, no insult intended Mr. Mather.
We appreciate your time and enthusiasm.
March 21st, 2009 at 3:46 am
keep it up good going
March 21st, 2009 at 4:35 am
I can't wait for the JWST and the amazing pictures it'll produce! It should be able to take a picture of an extrasolar planet and im really looking forward to New Horizons getting to Pluto! Design of JWST is really cool, it looks like a battle cruiser!
March 21st, 2009 at 7:51 am
So no astronaut can get to L2 at this time to service the thing. That capability may come later. They should design in SOME service-ability anyway. At least to "re-fuel" it with cryogenics. And is that liquid He or N?
It would be really sad to have a great telescope at L2 in 10 years that is useless because we could go to it then but it can't be "re-fueled".
March 21st, 2009 at 9:04 am
On the non-serviceability of JWST, the spacecraft is being designed with a level of redundancy that is typical of nearly all exoatmospheric machinery: no single failure will result in loss of mission. JWST may still be operating when we're able to fly a service mission, but we're relying on fault-tolerant design, quality construction, extensive testing and state-of-the-art mission operations to assure a successful program.
As to cryogenic refueling, only one of the four instruments requires liquid helium for its operation and the He is recycled in a cryocooler rather than used up.
Finally, on having seven motors per mirror segment, that's what it takes to get the segments positioned to within one wavelength of each other. The Hubble myopia problem cannot happen on this machine because the lenses (mirrors) are by necessity very precisely adjustable. Other problems may arise, but the inability to focus won't be one of them.
March 21st, 2009 at 10:11 am
$0.8 billion ('96) —> $1.6 billion ('03) –> $2.5 billion ('06) —-> $4.5 billion ('08) —> ~$5billion ('09)
How is this a cost increase of "about factor of two?"
Mather is sounding more and more and more like a politician that a scientist.
Sad, really.
March 21st, 2009 at 11:04 am
I love the foldingness.
I don't think we have refueling capabilities yet, and JWST must be too late in development for any such design to be implemented.
A great pity, for Jules Verne has shown as that autonomous docking is feasible, and I look forward to the day that Dewars of LHe can be launched alone and swap out without any need for guidance from Earth.
March 21st, 2009 at 11:56 am
@Mark Hagel:
It's called inflation, a concept that you obviously are incapable to understand.
March 21st, 2009 at 3:44 pm
A human servicing mission to L2 would be extremely complex, risky and expensive. Probably better to build and launch a new telescope when JWST finally fails entirely.
March 23rd, 2009 at 6:55 am
@random-sci-guy
I believe it is you that has a hard time with the concept of inflation.
The inflation rate from 1996 to 2009 has been approximately 36%. If inflation caused the price increase then the total cost of the program should be around 1.09 billion. ($800 billion in 1996).
Today's cost: ~5 billion.
The cost increase have almost NOTHING to do with inflation.
Even with factoring in inflation we see a factor of five cost increase….this is nothing near a "factor of two' as Mather suggests.
Math is hard….as is reality, apparently.