NASA recently put an important part of the Roman space telescope — the outer barrel assembly — through a rigorous “spin test” designed to evaluate its resilience against the extreme gravitational forces it will encounter during launch. This test, a standard procedure in aerospace engineering, is typically performed inside a massive centrifuge that simulates the high-gravity conditions of a space mission.
There is a lot of anticipation around this next-generation telescope, which is named after Nancy Grace Roman, NASA's first chief astronomer and “Mother of the Hubble Space Telescope.” Its field of view will be 100 times larger than Hubble's. The telescope, referred to as Roman for short, will work alongside other space observatories to directly observe exoplanets and planet-forming disks – which are currently observed indirectly.
It will also be used to complete the census of planetary systems in our Galaxy, and answer fundamental questions in the fields of dark energy and infrared astrophysics. “Roman’s much larger field of view will reveal many of these things that were previously unknown,” said Julie McNairy, Roman’s lead project scientist at Goddard. NASA statement From 2023. “And since we've never had an observatory like this to survey the universe before, we can find entirely new classes of objects and events.”
The outer barrel assembly is designed to protect the telescope and provide structural support for other components. “It's designed a bit like a house on stilts,” Jay Parker, head of product design for assembly at Goddard, said in a statement.
The “house” consists of a casing and a connecting ring that will cover the telescope, protecting it from stray light, while containing devices designed to maintain a constant temperature. Temperature regulation is crucial because the materials used to build the telescope expand and contract with temperature fluctuations.
The “house” consists of a housing and connecting ring that encases the telescope, protecting it from stray light, and housing devices designed to maintain a constant temperature. Temperature regulation is crucial because the materials used to build the telescope expand and contract with temperature fluctuations. If the temperature changes, it can cause the mirrors to misalign, negatively affecting the telescope's ability to capture clear, accurate images of distant celestial objects. By ensuring a stable temperature, the telescope can maintain the integrity of its mirrors and enhance its overall performance.
To achieve this stability, NASA scientists built the structure from a composite material made of two types of carbon fiber mixed with reinforced plastic, and secured with titanium fittings. This choice of material is strong enough to eliminate the risk of twisting while being lightweight enough to reduce the load during launch. In addition, the housing's internal structure features a honeycomb design, which provides a strong and stable frame while reducing material use and overall weight.
The house sits on a set of “pillars” that would surround a Roman telescope Extensive tool and Coronagraph instrument. It will also serve as a scaffold, allowing the outer barrel assembly to connect to the spacecraft that will carry the telescope into orbit. The entire structure is 17 feet (5 m) long and about 13.5 feet (4 m) wide.
“We could not test the entire outer barrel assembly in the centrifuge as one piece because it is too large to fit in the chamber,” Parker said. “So we tested ‘home’ and ‘pillars’ separately.”
The centrifuge itself is massive, with a 600,000-pound (272,000 kg) steel arm extending from a giant rotating bearing and extending across the test chamber located at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. When objects or even astronauts are rotated at the end of its arm, the centrifuge simulates an artificially increased feeling of gravity.
For astronauts, this is typically about twice Earth's gravitational force, measured in Gs (force per unit mass). But for equipment, such as telescopes, being carried into space, this can rise to between 6-7 G due to vibrations in the cargo hold.
To achieve the necessary 7Gs, parts of the outer barrel assembly were rotated inside the centrifuge at a rate of up to 18.4 revolutions per minute. After the successful test, NASA scientists say they will put it back together again and integrate it with Roman Solar panels and Deployable manhole cover At the end of this year.
The fully assembled components will then be subjected to thermal vacuum testing next year to ensure they can withstand the harsh environment of space, as well as vibration testing to ensure they can withstand launch. They will then be integrated into the rest of the observatory, which is scheduled to launch in May 2027.
Scientists are already excited about what the telescope might reveal. “This Roman survey will provide a trove of data for astronomers to sift through, allowing for more open cosmic exploration than is normally possible,” McEnery said. “We may accidentally discover completely new things that we don't yet know how to look for.”
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