40 Days
When the Perseverance lander approached Mars last year, NASA scientists had to endure “7 minutes of terror” before it successfully landed. Computer controlled operations essential to the landing needed to be completed in a detailed step-bystep process without a glitch if Perseverance was to successfully land on Mars. While that had to be nerve-wracking for the scientists who were essentially helpless to assist the process, those 7 minutes were just a warmup for the “40 days of terror” that is currently underway to deploy the James Webb Space Telescope. The James Webb Space Telescope is intended to be the replacement and upgrade of the Hubble Space Telescope. The James Webb telescope is immense. It has 18 mirror segments, with each mirror approximately the same size of the
of Terror Hubble’s mirror. That means James Webb will gather 18 times more light than Hubble. The mylar “sail” underneath the telescope mirror places the entire instrument in shade. Unlike Hubble, James Webb “sees” in infra-red. Infrared is emitted by warm objects. The “sail” is really a sunshade used to keep the optics and sensor very cold. The sensors must be cooled to 350 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. Successful deployment of the telescope requires 300 separate commands that must be initiated over a 40 day period. This “40 days of terror” is nearly complete. If successful, we’ll have a next generation telescope that promises to make as many astounding discoveries as we witnessed with Hubble.
Ron Smith’s teaching and lecturing career began at age 9 when his farther took him to see a planetarium show at the Griffith Observatory. Ten years later Ron’s dream came true when he began giving planetarium shows at Griffith while pursing an astronomy degree at the University of Southern California. After graduating from USC, Ron began his 34 year teaching career in the California Community College system. He first directed the Tessmann Planetarium at Santa Ana College, then two years later, became a professor of astronomy at Santa Monica College. In 1984 he left Southern California and taught for 18 years at Santa Rosa Junior College. There he produced planetarium programs for the college star theater, and taught astronomy, meteorology, and earth science. Ron considers himself to be a planetarium educator. In retirement, Ron continues to enjoy sharing his love of science with audiences at SunRiver, Dixie State University, and the Kayenta Center for the Performing Arts. 14 l www.swmlife.com
