Agreement Signed Between NASA and European Space Agency-Part II
“We’re delighted to have ESA’s participation on the James Webb Space Telescope,” said Griffin. “The tremendous scientific success of the Hubble Space Telescope can be attributed to the cooperative efforts between our two agencies. We expect that, as Hubble’s successor, the James Webb Space Telescope also will make profound astronomical observations and discoveries. When it does, we can be proud that it, too, is a project of international cooperation.”
At a recent International Air Show at Le Bourget, France, an agreement signed between NASA and European Space Agency demonstrated future cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. One is for LISA, as stated in the previous article, and the other agreement is for JWST, the James Webb space Telescope–considered to be the sucessor to the Hubble Space Telescope. The launch is planned for 2013, operating for approximately five years. The targeted cooperation is to investigate the origin and evolution of our galaxies, stars, and planetary systems. The large telescope measures 21.3 feet in diameter as compared to the Hubble’s 7.9 feet diameter.
The JWST is a mission that has been targeted for international cooperation between NASA, the European Space Agency, and also the Canadian Space Agency–while the LISA is a target cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA will be responsible for the overall management of the JWST mission, along with its operational purposes. NASA will also build the spacecraft, telescope, and platform to house the instruments, and in addition, they will provide the Near-Infrared Camera, from the University of Arizona-Tuscon, while ESA will provide the Near-InfraredSpectograph operating over similar wavelengths. ESA will also provide an Ariane 5 ECA rocket for the telescope’s launch. NASA will privde the instrument’s detectors for the Near-Infrared Camera’s measurement for the wavelengths of light coming from the observed stars, and the microshutters, used to select which star in the field of view will be observed by the detectors.
The Mid-Infrared Instrument is being built through a consortium of nationally funded European institutions, responsible for the instrument’s optical assembly and NASA, with coordination through ESA. Canada will provide the Fine Guidance Sensor/Tuneable Filter Imager, another instrument that is onboard the spacecraft.
The JWST will not only have superb imaging capability at visible and infrared wavelengths with various spectroscopic modes, but will be able to view these objects to learn about their chemistry and also the evolution of the universe. Located about one million miles away at the L2 spot or the “second Lagrangian point,” the location is about four times further away than the moon’s orbit–opposite the direction of the sun.
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 19th, 2007 at 10:47 pm and is filed under Mission Objectives, Space Agency News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
