WASHINGTON — All of the main parts of NASA’s subsequent flagship area telescope are actually below one roof as NASA says its construction stays on price and time table.
In shows at two advisory committee conferences remaining week, Mark Clampin, astrophysics director at NASA Headquarters, mentioned the telescope meeting for the Nancy Grace Roman House Telescope is now on the Goddard House Flight Heart, becoming a member of different parts of the spacecraft there.
Clampin mentioned the telescope unit, which not too long ago finished thermal vacuum exams at an L3Harris facility, was once flown to Goddard on a C-5 shipment airplane previous within the week and is now in the similar construction on the middle used for meeting of parts of the Hubble House Telescope and James Webb House Telescope.
“Construction 29 now hosts the entire of the Roman House Telescope. It is a actual success,” he mentioned at a Nov. 8 assembly of the Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics of the Nationwide Academies’ House Research Board.
Different key parts of Roman, together with the spacecraft bus and its two primary tools, have been already at Goddard. The coming of the telescope meeting, he mentioned, helps to keep paintings at the spacecraft on time table.
Clampin, in his feedback Nov. 8 to the Nationwide Academies committee, credited groups at Goddard and L3Harris for “running with us to return thru on what turned into a gorgeous difficult time table to get this telescope delivered on time and steer clear of us having to slide the release date.” He didn’t elaborate on the ones time table demanding situations.
NASA is operating to a release readiness date of no later than Might 2027 for Roman and a construction price cap, set by means of Congress, of $3.5 billion. “This program continues to be on price and time table,” he advised the Nationwide Academies committee. “We’re running to a congressional price cap and we’re staying on time table.”
He cited an audit of the challenge carried out by means of NASA’s Place of work of Inspector Common and revealed in July. “Even if essential machine integration, trying out, and related duties stay, as of March 2024, Roman was once assembly its price tasks and time table to release by means of Might 2027,” that audit concluded, even if it famous previous problems connected to the pandemic that led to an building up in lifecycle prices and a seven-month prolong to its release readiness date in 2021.
Clampin has again and again emphasised the significance of retaining Roman on price and time table, list it as one in every of his best priorities within the company’s portfolio of astrophysics techniques. That emphasis on price and time table is meant to lend a hand construct credibility about plans for long term missions, just like the Liveable Worlds Observatory, after the critical delays and overruns with JWST.
The only factor the audit raised about Roman was once communications given “unheard of quantity of information” that the telescope will produce and the usage of oversubscribed communications networks to obtain it. “Roman officers have now not correctly evaluated dangers related to transmitting information from those oversubscribed networks and don’t have a contingency plan for downlinking information must any of the networks fail,” the audit concluded.
The audit advisable that NASA review the usage of the Deep House Community (DSN) for Roman as a contingency, however Clampin mentioned on the Nationwide Academies assembly that this was once now not possible. “It’s very past due to be converting the design of the spacecraft,” he mentioned, “and we don’t consider the DSN has the potential to soak up a petabyte-class challenge.”
He mentioned Roman will use NASA’s Close to House Community, together with an upgraded dish that can be shared with the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, in addition to partnerships with Europe and Japan.
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