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Telescope for NASA’s Roman Project Whole, Brought to Goddard – NASA

Telescope for NASA’s Roman Project Whole, Brought to Goddard – NASA
November 15, 2024



NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Area Telescope is one massive step nearer to unlocking the mysteries of the universe. The project has now gained its ultimate main supply: the Optical Telescope Meeting, which incorporates a 7.9-foot (2.4-meter) number one replicate, 9 further mirrors, and supporting constructions and electronics. The meeting used to be delivered Nov. 7. to the most important blank room at NASA’s Goddard Area Flight Middle in Greenbelt, Maryland, the place the observatory is being constructed.
The telescope will focal point cosmic mild and ship it to Roman’s tools, revealing many billions of items strewn all through area and time. The usage of the project’s Vast Box Tool, a 300-megapixel infrared digital camera, astronomers will survey the cosmos the entire manner from the outskirts of our sun machine towards the threshold of the observable universe. Scientists will use Roman’s Coronagraph Tool to check new applied sciences for dimming host stars to symbol planets and dusty disks round them in a ways higher element than ever earlier than.
“We have now a top-notch telescope that’s smartly aligned and has nice optical efficiency on the chilly temperatures it’ll see in area,” mentioned Bente Eegholm, optics lead for Roman’s Optical Telescope Meeting at NASA Goddard. “I’m now taking a look ahead to the following section the place the telescope and tools will likely be put in combination to shape the Roman observatory.”

Designed and constructed by way of L3Harris Applied sciences in Rochester, New York, the meeting contains key optics (together with the main replicate) that have been made to be had to NASA by way of the Nationwide Reconnaissance Administrative center. The workforce at L3Harris then reshaped the replicate and constructed upon the inherited {hardware} to verify it will meet Roman’s specs for expansive, delicate infrared observations.
“The telescope would be the basis of the entire science Roman will do, so its design and function are some of the biggest components within the project’s survey capacity,” mentioned Josh Abel, lead Optical Telescope Meeting programs engineer at NASA Goddard.
The workforce at Goddard labored carefully with L3Harris to verify those stringent necessities have been met and that the telescope meeting will combine easily into the remainder of the Roman observatory.
The meeting’s design and function will in large part resolve the standard of the project’s effects, so the producing and trying out processes have been extraordinarily rigorous. Every optical element used to be examined personally previous to being assembled and assessed in combination previous this yr. The assessments helped make certain that the alignment of the telescope’s mirrors will exchange as anticipated when the telescope reaches its running temperature in area.
Then, the telescope used to be put thru assessments simulating the extraordinary shaking and intense sound waves related to release. Engineers additionally made positive that tiny parts known as actuators, which is able to regulate one of the crucial mirrors in area, transfer as predicted. And the workforce measured gases launched from the meeting because it transitioned from customary air drive to a vacuum –– the similar phenomenon that has led astronauts to file that area smells gunpowdery or metal. If now not in moderation managed, those gases may just contaminate the telescope or tools.

After all, the telescope underwent a month-long thermal vacuum check to verify it’ll face up to the temperature and drive setting of area. The workforce carefully monitored it right through chilly running prerequisites to verify the telescope’s temperature will stay consistent to inside of a fragment of some extent. Keeping the temperature consistent permits the telescope to stay in strong focal point, making Roman’s high-resolution pictures constantly sharp. Just about 100 warmers at the telescope will assist stay all portions of it at an excessively strong temperature.
“It is rather tough to design and construct a machine to carry temperatures to this type of tight steadiness, and the telescope carried out exceptionally,” mentioned Christine Cottingham, thermal lead for Roman’s Optical Telescope Meeting at NASA Goddard.
Now that the meeting has arrived at Goddard, it’ll be put in onto Roman’s Tool Provider, a construction that may stay the telescope and Roman’s two tools optically aligned. The meeting’s electronics field –– necessarily the telescope’s mind –– will likely be fixed inside the spacecraft in conjunction with Roman’s different electronics.
With this milestone, Roman stays on course for release by way of Would possibly 2027.
“Congratulations to the workforce in this stellar accomplishment!” mentioned J. Scott Smith, the meeting’s telescope supervisor at NASA Goddard. “The final touch of the telescope marks the top of an epoch and unbelievable adventure for this workforce, and but just a bankruptcy in construction Roman. The workforce’s efforts have complex era and ignited the imaginations of those that dream of exploring the celebrities.”

The Nancy Grace Roman Area Telescope is controlled at NASA’s Goddard Area Flight Middle in Greenbelt, Maryland, with participation by way of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech/IPAC in Southern California, the Area Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, and a science workforce comprising scientists from quite a lot of analysis establishments. The main commercial companions are BAE Programs Inc. in Boulder, Colorado; L3Harris Applied sciences in Rochester, New York; and Teledyne Medical & Imaging in Thousand Oaks, California.
Through Ashley Balzer
NASA’s Goddard Area Flight Middle, Greenbelt, Md.
​​Media Touch:
Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Area Flight Middle, Greenbelt, Md.
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
301-286-1940

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