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NASA's replacement for Hubble

2010, November 18 - 9:50pm — Greg Kontos
Features: Current EventsCritical Path Innovation: Space ExplorationInstitutions: NASA, Canadian Space Agency, European Space AgencyPlaces: Goddard Space Flight CenterProjects: Webb Telescope
A Full Scale Model of the James Webb Space Telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a large infrared telescope with a 6.5 meter primary mirror. This telescope will eventually replace the Hubble Telescope. The Webb Telescope is a good deal larger and should be able to provide significantly better images than the magnificent images seen from the Hubble.

Here's a quick run down of the specs:
Hubble

  • Earth Orbit
  • Primarily Explores Ultra-Violet to Visible Spectrum (0.1 to 2.5 microns)
  • 44 ft. Long
  • 2.4 diameter primary meter

Webb

  • Orbits at the Earth-Sun L2 Lagrange Point
  • Primarily Explores Infrared Spectrum (0.6 to 28 microns)
  • 69.5 ft long
  • 6.5 meter diameter primary mirror

Despite the inevitable coolness of this telescope, the project is having some trouble. It is currently over budget by about $1.5 billion dollars over the previous $5 billion dollar budget, which itself was a $1.5 billion over run from the original 3 billion. The telescope is a little behind schedule, too. The project was originally supposed to launch in 2007, but now the estimated earliest launch date is 2015. Part of the reason for the difficulty is that the Webb telescope cannot be serviced by the space shuttle like the Hubble telescope. That means there isn't really any margin for pre-launch error.