Space exploration: Where do we go from here?

[dxmnkd316]

Lame. Wasn't it supposed to be six months from launch?

[MichVandal]

Lame. Wasn't it supposed to be six months from launch?

Lame because why? As far as I know, this has always been the plan, and so far, JWST is 100% nominal in terms of how it's going. We may get observations in 6 months, but it's going to take a much longer time until all of that is digested and discoveries are made. Hubble made some nice pictures early on, but it was quite a while until real discoveries happened.

[aparch]

The operating temps are what the mirrors are calibrated for, correct? And that's why the wait?

Agreed that it's gonna be well over a year before we see real groundbreaking data from Webb.

Also, weren't some of those "fancy" photos Hubble took still useless until she shuttle mission to affix a contact lens to Hubble to correct its astgmatism?

[dxmnkd316]

I think it's pretty self explanatory

obviously I was wrong. But it being lame was contingent on me being right. So while I'm disappointed, it's not lame. Obviously it takes months and months for data to be digested.

[MichVandal]

The operating temps are what the mirrors are calibrated for, correct? And that's why the wait?

Agreed that it's gonna be well over a year before we see real groundbreaking data from Webb.

Also, weren't some of those "fancy" photos Hubble took still useless until she shuttle mission to affix a contact lens to Hubble to correct its astgmatism?

The sensors have to run at that temp, too- actually, it's more important for the sensors to be so cold than the mirrors. And they have a secondary cooling system using helium. Has to be that cold to detect the longer wavelength IR.

I think quite a bit of the mirror aiming is going to happen while the system cools down. From what I understand- there's two phases to the mirrors- one is the basic aiming so they are all looking at the right spot, and then each mirror gets individually shaped. The latter part really blowing my mind that they are doing that. Basically, counteracting the very thing that happened to hubble- even though they are ground to not have that happen. The mirror system engineering is amazing.

[MichVandal]

I think it's pretty self explanatory

obviously I was wrong. But it being lame was contingent on me being right. So while I'm disappointed, it's not lame. Obviously it takes months and months for data to be digested.

Yea, it's not really self explanatory- otherwise I would not be asking. I would try to point out something else.

[LynahFan]

The sensors have to run at that temp, too- actually, it's more important for the sensors to be so cold than the mirrors. And they have a secondary cooling system using helium. Has to be that cold to detect the longer wavelength IR.

I think quite a bit of the mirror aiming is going to happen while the system cools down. From what I understand- there's two phases to the mirrors- one is the basic aiming so they are all looking at the right spot, and then each mirror gets individually shaped. The latter part really blowing my mind that they are doing that. Basically, counteracting the very thing that happened to hubble- even though they are ground to not have that happen. The mirror system engineering is amazing.

If that blows your mind, read up on Adaptive Optics. They have deformable mirrors that react in real-time to atmospheric distortion to increase transmission throughput for laser-based communication systems - the mirror shape updates ~1000 times per second.

[Kepler]

Obviously it takes months and months for data to be digested.

Does it still? Is that because they need months and months of observations to build the data set for a given location? Or is it the sheer complexity that even with our computing power it still takes months? (Hey, maybe divert that bitcoin mining capacity...)

[Kepler]

If that blows your mind, read up on Adaptive Optics. They have deformable mirrors that react in real-time to atmospheric distortion to increase transmission throughput for laser-based communication systems - the mirror shape updates ~1000 times per second.

Is that on a micrometer scale? Less? Waaaaaaay less?

[dxmnkd316]

Does it still? Is that because they need months and months of observations to build the data set for a given location? Or is it the sheer complexity that even with our computing power it still takes months? (Hey, maybe divert that bitcoin mining capacity...)

Let me be more careful with words. THe digesting might take shorter, but the academic process still takes months. Digest, match against hypothesis, verify discrepancies, write the paper, pre-print, comments, revise, print, etc.

[Kepler]

Let me be more careful with words. THe digesting might take shorter, but the academic process still takes months. Digest, match against hypothesis, verify discrepancies, write the paper, pre-print, comments, revise, print, etc.

Ah. Gotcha.

[dxmnkd316]

Ah. Gotcha.

The pretty "pictures" might take less. There's a lot of interest and pressure from the general public (relative to normal 21st century science levels) to see something.

tl;dr - �¯\_(?)_/�¯


edit :-/

[MichVandal]

Let me be more careful with words. THe digesting might take shorter, but the academic process still takes months. Digest, match against hypothesis, verify discrepancies, write the paper, pre-print, comments, revise, print, etc.

Yea, we have to not forget that the entire intention of this scope is to see stuff we've never seen before. So to understand that will take a while.

I watched a show on Netflix last evening about black holes- from the 5 days of observation to just process the pictures took at least 2 years. This may not be that, but to actually understand what you are looking at....

[MichVandal]

Is that on a micrometer scale? Less? Waaaaaaay less?

nano.

[dxmnkd316]

Yea, we have to not forget that the entire intention of this scope is to see stuff we've never seen before. So to understand that will take a while.

I watched a show on Netflix last evening about black holes- from the 5 days of observation to just process the pictures took at least 2 years. This may not be that, but to actually understand what you are looking at....

Yeah, i wonder if they don't observe and release a known object first. Like pillars of creation or sombrero or something like that.