NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, slated for launch no later than May 2027, is poised to become a powerful tool for exploring deep space. The telescope will capture images of billions of galaxies and investigate mysteries such as dark matter, supernovae, and other cosmic phenomena.
The primary mission of the Roman Space Telescope is to conduct rapid and precise surveys of large areas of the sky. This will enable the mapping of both normal and dark matter distribution and the rate of cosmic expansion throughout different epochs of the universe. Scientists aim to use this data to understand the universe’s origins and predict its distant future. Furthermore, the telescope will survey planetary systems around other stars to determine the commonality of solar systems similar to our own.
A significant milestone was achieved in November 2024 with the delivery of the Optical Telescope Assembly (OTA) to NASA. L3Harris, NASA’s partner for this project, designed, fabricated, integrated, and tested the OTA, which acts as the observatory’s “eyes.” This assembly includes a 2.4-meter primary mirror and nine smaller mirrors, along with the structures and support systems needed for operation in space.
A key focus during development was achieving extreme optical stability to meet mission requirements. L3Harris developed a novel carbon composite material with exceptionally low thermal expansion. Its stability is so high that a football field length of this material would only change by the width of a human hair with a 100-degree Fahrenheit temperature shift.
To maintain this stability, a sophisticated temperature control system was created. This system keeps key telescope areas stable to within a few thousandths of a degree Celsius, even with extreme temperature variations in space. This ensures precise scientific measurements despite thermal challenges.
The OTA design accounts for gravitational effects on Earth and temperature changes in space to ensure optimal performance once operational a million miles from Earth. Simulations were conducted to predict these changes, and adjustments were made during design and fabrication. Movable optics allow for in-orbit corrections.
In early 2024, final optical alignment of the ten mirrors was completed with microscopic precision using an interferometer camera system. The aligned telescope then underwent rigorous dynamic testing to simulate launch conditions, including intense acoustic and acceleration forces.
A thermal-vacuum test in a large vacuum chamber in Rochester, New York, further validated the OTA’s performance in simulated space conditions. Cooled to as low as -120 degrees Fahrenheit, the OTA met all performance requirements. Following this, it was delivered to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center for integration with science instruments and the spacecraft.
The Roman Space Telescope will join the James Webb Space Telescope at the L2 Lagrange point, working in tandem to provide enhanced cosmological insights. Roman will image large sky areas at Hubble-like resolution but 1000 times faster, identifying Webb telescope targets.
Roman is designed to be the most stable large space telescope ever built, exceeding the stability of Webb and Hubble. This stability and its coronagraph instrument will be crucial for testing cosmological theories and are essential steps towards NASA’s Habitable Worlds Observatory mission, which aims to find potentially life-supporting planets.
L3Harris’s delivery of the OTA marks a continuing partnership with NASA, spanning over 60 years of providing imaging systems and solutions for space exploration, from the Hubble to the James Webb telescopes and beyond.
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