{"id":238209,"date":"2015-11-25T05:42:00","date_gmt":"2015-11-25T09:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?guid=3b3efd940d8c75356bbbca175355385a"},"modified":"2015-11-25T05:42:00","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T09:42:00","slug":"nirspec-on-james-webb-space-telescope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=238209","title":{"rendered":"NIRSpec on James Webb Space Telescope"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\nEurope\u2019s NIRSpec instrument will be launched in 2018 as part of the NASA\u2013ESA James Webb Space Telescope. This week, in recognition of the UN International Year of Light<\/a>, a NIRSpec model is among the cutting-edge optical instruments on display at ESA\u2019s technical heart, coinciding with a gathering of optical experts.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe Innovative Technologies in Space Optics workshop<\/a> is being hosted at ESTEC in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, from where the NIRSpec programme is managed.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe Near InfraRed Spectrograph will study the characteristics of more than a hundred celestial objects at once \u2013 a major technical challenge to European industry.\n<\/p>\n

\nIts focusing mirrors had to be lightweight while maintaining perfect optical performance even as their operating temperature drops to just 40\u00baC above absolute zero. The material of choice turned out to be cold-pressed silicon carbide, originally synthesised in an attempt to make artificial diamonds, and championed by ESA\u2019s space optics experts<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe word \u2018optics\u2019 comes from the Greek for eye, but the workshop is discussing instruments that operate far beyond the limits of human vision, from the infrared wavelengths of the James Webb Space Telescope to the X-rays that will be focused by ESA\u2019s Athena observatory<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\nAlso on show were the latest CCD and APS light detectors, the use of the laser equivalent of radar to look back at Earth by ESA\u2019s Aeolus<\/a> and EarthCARE<\/a> satellites, and lasers for high-bandwidth, long-distance communication for Europe\u2019s EDRS<\/a> \u2018data highway\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\nEurope’s NIRSpec instrument will be launched in 2018 as part of the NASA–ESA James Webb Space Telescope. This week, in recognition of the UN International Year of Light<\/a>, a NIRSpec model is among the cutting-edge optical instruments on display at ESA’s technical heart, coinciding with a gathering of optical experts.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe Innovative Technologies in Space Optics workshop<\/a> is being hosted at ESTEC in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, from where the NIRSpec programme is managed.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe Near InfraRed Spectrograph will study the characteristics of more than a hundred celestial objects at once – a major technical challenge to European industry.\n<\/p>\n

\nIts focusing mirrors had to be lightweight while maintaining perfect optical performance even as their operating temperature drops to just 40ºC above absolute zero. The material of choice turned out to be cold-pressed silicon carbide, originally synthesised in an attempt to make artificial diamonds, and championed by ESA’s space optics experts<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe word ‘optics’ comes from the Greek for eye, but the workshop is discussing instruments that operate far beyond the limits of human vision, from the infrared wavelengths of the James Webb Space Telescope to the X-rays that will be focused by ESA’s Athena observatory<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\nAlso on show were the latest CCD and APS light detectors, the use of the laser equivalent of radar to look back at Earth by ESA’s Aeolus<\/a> and EarthCARE<\/a> satellites, and lasers for high-bandwidth, long-distance communication for Europe’s EDRS<\/a> ‘data highway’.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":615444,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-238209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-multimedia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=238209"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":238210,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238209\/revisions\/238210"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/615444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=238209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=238209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=238209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}