NASA is integrating 45 miles of wiring into new telescope
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NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team has started integrating the spacecraft's "nervous system", a blog post from the US space agency explained.
In other words, the team is testing and adding massive amounts of electrical cabling, also known as a harness, to the telescope. This cabling provides power and also allows different parts of the telescope to communicate with one another.
In its blog post, NASA points out that, were the wires to be laid out end-to-end, they would extend to 45 miles (approx. 72 km). That is equivalent to eight times the height of Mount Everest.
A new flagship NASA space observatory
All of that cabling will connect to an array of sensors, allowing the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope's central computer to monitor the observatory's function while in space.
The smooth operation of this component is essential, as the observatory will join the James Webb Space Telescope in Lagrange Point 2, roughly a million miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth.
What's eight times taller than Mount Everest? Roman's harness (if it were laid out end-to-end) of course!
— Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (@NASARoman) August 23, 2023
Just like the human nervous system, all this wiring will help different parts of the observatory communicate – and now it's ready for integration ✅ https://t.co/CdnjDNe1EL pic.twitter.com/IDFu33g5Ya
Much like James Webb, the Roman's distance from Earth means it will not be serviceable like Hubble — at least not with existing technologies.
"Just as the nervous system carries signals throughout the human body, Roman's harness connects its components, providing both power and commands to each electronic box and instrument," explained Deneen Ferro, the Roman harness project development lead at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "Without a harness, there is no spacecraft."
The entire harness weighs around 1,000 lbs, and it is made up of about 32,000 wires and 900 connectors. In its post, NASA said it took a team of 11 technicians two years to cut and prepare the wiring.
Investigating alien worlds and dark energy
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, currently scheduled to launch by May 2027, was named after the "mother" of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
In a post from NASA in 2020, the space agency explained that "Roman tirelessly advocated for new tools that would allow scientists to study the broader universe from space. She left behind a tremendous legacy in the scientific community when she died in 2018."
The observatory is designed to investigate long-standing mysteries in dark energy, cosmic expansion, infrared astrophysics, exoplanets, and rogue alien worlds.
It will feature two instruments: the Wide Field Instrument and a technology demonstration Coronagraph Instrument.
The Wide Field Instrument will have a field of view 100 times greater than that of Hubble's infrared instrument. Meanwhile, The Coronagraph Instrument will perform high-contrast imaging and spectroscopy of individual nearby exoplanets.
The Roman Space Telescope's primary mirror will measure 2.4 meters (7.9 feet) in diameter, the same size as Hubble's primary mirror. Unlike Hubble, it will observe from a location far beyond Earth's atmosphere.
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