Talk Description to Me

Episode 86 - NASA's James Webb Space Telescope

January 15, 2022 Christine Malec and JJ Hunt Season 4 Episode 86
Talk Description to Me
Episode 86 - NASA's James Webb Space Telescope
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

It's been an exciting couple of weeks for space geeks like Christine. On Christmas Day, with help from the European Space Agency, NASA launched the James Webb Space Telescope, the successor to Hubble. Since then, the telescope has been busy unfolding, preparing itself for a million-mile mission and a lifetime of capturing infrared images of the oldest and most distant objects in our universe.  JJ and Christine will have to wait a while before those images are available to describe, but that's ok because there's a more pressing practical question to deal with first: what the heck does an unfolding space telescope look like?!

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JJ Hunt:

Talk description to me with Christine Malec and JJ Hunt.

Christine Malec:

Hi, I'm Christine Malec.

JJ Hunt:

And I'm JJ Hunt. This is talk description to me where the visuals of current events and the world around us get hashed out in description rich conversations

Christine Malec:

I'm happy to say that today's episode is more about space, we're going to talk about the NASA Webb telescope that's just been deployed. Very exciting. Before we do that, I want to mention quickly that if you are on Twitter, I've launched a new Twitter space that is for blind and low vision people or anyone who wants to experience space exploration and astronomy from a multi sensory perspective. So there'll be lots of stuff on sonification and descriptions and other opportunities to experience these subjects in an inclusive way. So if you're on Twitter, look for at the Invisi verse. So I will spell that T H E, I N, VI, es i v e r s e at Invisi verse and follow for space stuff. And of course, our podcast is on Twitter at talk description. So people have been watching and following and talking about the launch of the new NASA Webb telescope. Very exciting stuff, they'll be able to observe a lot more and a lot further back in time, which is pretty mind bending. So, JJ, should we start with the launch of this?

JJ Hunt:

Yeah, absolutely. So it was Christmas Day the Telescope was launched by a European Space Agency rocket. This was from a Spaceport in French Guyana. And this was the European Space Agency's contribution to the mission. And this launch was broadcast and available to watch on YouTube. So you can go there, you can go to YouTube, you can watch it now. And you can, if you're if you're checking out the video, you can hear the countdown in French and you can, you know, hear a little bit of the back and forth, you know, in mission control, and you can hear the boom of the rocket, it's pretty impressive. But they're there, I don't think there are any descriptions available from NASA itself. So we'll just like walk through that video basically, which is a minute and a half, two minutes long for most of the action. So the rocket itself the European Space Agency rocket is a tall, largely white cylinder with a pointed tip. And of course, it's fully branded, the names and logos of the telescope, and then the space agencies and then the rocket those are all printed on the on the side of the rocket up near the tip facing the cameras of course, and in the launch video is standing upright supported by a solid tower behind it. In two smaller booster rockets are attached one on either side. There are also four steel lattice towers that are around the launch pad area. These towers are taller than the rocket. So picture like the Eiffel Tower, but quite a bit narrower. I'm not sure what their function was there, there were no cables criss crossing from one to the other. But I couldn't exactly tell from the video what they were there for. The countdown begins. And at seven we cut from so most of the most of this video is kind of shot from like a medium shot. So the camera is fixed and looking at the rocket in such a way that you can see the top and the bottom you can see the whole thing. But not a huge amount of context visual context to see what's around at the at the during the countdown at seven We then cut to a pair of monitoring cameras that are aimed at internal components and happens pretty quickly. It's not entirely clear what the internal components are, are. But what happens is that seven they release steam so these little bit of steam comes off these components and then they break away and what it becomes clear is these are things that were attached for to the actual rocket itself. And then you know they burst a bit of steam and they break away from the hull. So we're getting closer to this being a free standing rocket. At three we cut back to this medium shot of the rocket and we see some what I'm going to call smoke billowing from the base of the rocket. It might be steam. I'm not entirely sure but it looks like smoke and I want to distinguish it from other things. So I'm going to call it smoke smoke starts to billow from the base of the rocket, when the countdown hits one, we then cut to a monitoring shot of the nozzle at the base of the rocket. This is the engine nozzle at the base of the rocket. And everything about this, this shot that we've got this close up shots, very industrial looking right, it kind of actually looks like a close up of like a component on the Death Star or something.

Christine Malec:

Ha ha!

JJ Hunt:

It looks a little bit sci fi, you know, very dark angular, bits of concrete and pipe and whatnot, the nozzle of the rocket is pointing down, of course, and it's sitting in a break in the launch pad. So there's like a cut out in the launch pad so that this nozzle can sit in it. And then there's a hole directly beneath the nozzle. And so we got what looks like steam pouring down from the nozzle. And then there are these two daggers of white hot fire that are shooting out from the sides of the brake in the launch pad into the steam that's coming down from the nozzle. So this is just like pilot lights on the burner of a gas stove. These daggers of fire ignite the steam, which is probably actually gas, not steam. So you got this, you know this stuff that looks like steam, that's gas coming down from the nozzle, the daggers of fire ignited like the burner on a gas though. And then suddenly from the nozzle shoots this warm orange fire in it, it sparks and it burns and it bursts in this mad frenzy. And then the flames start shooting out straight down into the hole in the ground that's directly beneath the nozzle. And then we cut back to this medium to the medium shot of the entire rocket. And this is when it's announced that we have an engine start, there's a secondary burst of smoke that comes from the base of the rocket and it shoots out to our right. And it's kind of like a cloud being shot from a cannon inside an existing cloud. So you just get this the secondary burst of clouded expands the cloud around is huge. So now you get a really quickly expanding billowing burst of cloud coming from the bottom of this rocket. Then there's a flash of fire at the base of the rocket and it begins to rise and Liftoff is declared and the fire under the rocket is so hot that the cameras actually have a hard time capturing it visually. It's like this brilliant fluid golden white blank spot in the footage. And as the rocket rises up and out of frame the fire continues to burn at this brilliant golden white color, the smoke continues to below until that the fire and the smoke occupy the entire screen. And then that's when we cut to an even to a wide shot that's filmed from I mean, I'm gonna guess several 100 feet away. And here's where we get a sense of the scale. The rocket is now well off the ground clear of those steel lattice towers. The tail of the flame like the is still brilliant white. It's somewhat conical, the flame tail is somewhat conical in shape spreading wider as it gets further from the nozzle. And it is several times larger than the rocket itself. And the tail of flames they kind of blend seamlessly into a tail of smoke, it just kind of becomes smoke that feeds into the billowing clouds that are spreading out more or less along the ground right primarily to our left now from the angle that we've got here. We then cut to a camera that tracks the rocket I don't know if it's handheld or not. But it's a camera that it's able to pan and track the rocket as it rises higher and higher into the sky. And up until this point all the other cameras have been fixed, locked in place, but this one is able to track the rocket, but it's a really great cloudy day so the rocket actually keeps slipping in and out of you. And for a while only the tail of fire can be seen clearly. And for the first time in here in this shot, it becomes clear that there are actually two jets of fire. This isn't one jet shooting down from the central rocket. I think this is actually these are the boosters on either side. We were only just being shown footage of one as a you know, I think that's what's happening because from this angle, it's quite clear there are two jets of fire. They're shooting straight down and then you know, you know it doesn't take long before the two jets of the two tails of fire kind of blend together and look like one. So for about I mean it's only been 20 seconds in at this point. Then the rocket begins to pitch a little bit to our right and then pass behind a cloud, and the cloud is so dense that even the tale of flames just completely vanishes from sight. That's it, it's gone. And then now the Webb telescope has left Earth. That's it, it's gone into the clouds. It's amazing how incredibly dense these clouds can be that not only can they hide a rocket, but this really bright tale of full of fire that's coming out from the back of it just gone in the clouds.

Christine Malec:

What you've just described, how does that compare to other rocket launches? You've seen? Because I assume there's a certain sameness in terms of the physics and the mechanics of the process.

JJ Hunt:

Yeah, this launch was very similar to other launches that I've seen before. A lot of the components of the same the rocket shape is the same the two boosters on the side the same, the way the countdown proceeds, and even actually, the camera angles that were given access to you usually during a countdown get some kind of close up of the disengaging, you know, to something from the tower disconnecting from, from the rocket itself, you usually get the moment that the engine, you know, fires up, the billowing smoke, the rising the tail of flames, all of these things are, are pretty common components of the launch, there might be some differences in the shape of the rocket, but honestly, the standard rocket it looks like this is this long cylinder with a tapered top that comes to a not so sharp point. That's pretty standard. Yeah, this was this was as you would hope it to go. If you're someone who is who's who watches these things regularly, you want it to look like this. This is this was a very good clean looking launch.

Christine Malec:

And how do you get visual perspective? You said at one point that you could, then you could sort of get some perspective. So what in the camera angle or coverage gives you a sense of perspective of the rocket compared to something else?

JJ Hunt:

That's a good question. I mean, you've got these towers, these lattice towers that are nearby. So when you got the medium shot, it's just the rocket, it's going from the bottom of the frame to the top of the frame. And the only other things that are in view are part of the launch. So the you know, the launch towers is always going to be about the same size as the rocket itself. It, it's when you get some of the medium shots and the larger shots, then you get a sense of how much open space is around that may or may not give you an idea of how big the rocket is. But it gives you an understanding of how big the billowing clouds are, or how long that tail of flames is, when it's firing up for the first time and the tail of flames is going straight down into a hole. You don't see how deep that hole goes. So you don't really know. It's only when it's lifted off the ground, you realize, Wow, that that tail of flames is several times bigger than that rocket, and then the billowing clouds that are spreading out along the ground. That's several times bigger than the tail of flame. So that's when you it's what you get is a relative understanding of how big the various components within this little scene are. Not so much how big the rocket is compared to a tree. But how big that rocket is compared to the flames compared to the clouds. Like that's what you get this wow, this is this operation is taking up a lot of space.

Christine Malec:

Mm hmm. No, there's no cameras going up with it or any way to track it in real time visually. So how has NASA constructed their coverage to show what happens next?

JJ Hunt:

Yeah, this is really interesting. You're right that there are no cameras filming the telescope as it's unfolding, filming the rocket as it's separating up in space. They just don't have monitoring cameras on board. So any visuals that are part of a news report or you know, a part of any, any any part of a story that's, that's talking about this in space, these are computer animations. So sometimes what NASA does is they create computer animations in advance. So this to demonstrate this is what's going to happen. This is how this will look this is and those are really helpful and useful. I based a lot of the description today on those animations. But on the on the day that everyone tuned in on January 8. That's when we hit this important milestone where the final piece of the unfolding telescope was locked into place. That day. What we got was a visualization a computer animated visualization. So instead of being a pre recorded animation, they had sensors on board collecting data. So when part of this telescope would unfold and lock into place, that data is sent to the control centers. And what they did was they, they pumped that data and information into this computer animation. And what we saw was computer graphics responding to the actual telescopes, sensor data in real time. And I'm sure there's some value from a scientific standpoint, you know, sighted scientists and engineers will probably be aided with problem solving by being able to see to visualize what an issue is. But really, I think that computer animation, that kind of computer visualization is mostly important for engagement from the general public, right? The general public doesn't really want to be presented with a data stream that conveys engineering success.

Christine Malec:

Heh heh.

JJ Hunt:

That's not a particularly, you know, that's not binge worthy television, we're not all tuning in to see the data stream, we want to see what's happening up there, we want to hear this thing locking into place. And so this was as close as they could get with these computer animations that were really visualizations of the telescope's sensor data in real time.

Christine Malec:

So do we know what the unit itself looked like before it unfolded? Yeah, so it was super interesting. Again, these the computer animations that they create in advance are all available online. And what they show is every element every stage of the of the rocket from once one, it's once it's taken off to when the various sections begin to separate to when you are left with nothing but a folded up, telescope. And then step by step how it all unfolds. And it's fascinating. I mean, it's a, it's a pretty long, complicated procedure, I mean, imagine that you've got a massive telescope that is quite wide, quite tall and has many components. And it has to be folded up and squeezed into a cylinder. So it really looks like a puzzle in there. And then what happens over the course of 12 days is piece by piece, it starts to unfold a little bit like a like a flower, dropping one pet opening one petal at a time until it finally it, you know is in its ultimate shape. And so that's what we have access to from from these videos. And that's kind of what I based a lot of my description on is those those short animated videos. So can you walk us through what happened? Like what it looked like? And then what started to happen?

JJ Hunt:

Yeah, absolutely. So after the launch, there were a series of stages and maneuvers like we've talked about various parts of the rocket were jettisoned until only the folded up telescope remained. And apparently, that that only took about 30 minutes. So the whole thing is really quite complicated. By the time the unfurling is done, the James Webb Space Telescope, you know, will look like a large radar dish with a honeycomb pattern that is sitting atop a stack of diamond shaped sheets of tin foil. But when it first emerges from the rocket cocoon that it's folded up into this box shape, it's like it's a little bit looks, it's shaped like a large refrigerator, essentially. So I'm going to do my best to describe the process without getting too lost in the weeds because it does, there are lots of different stages to this puzzle unfolding. So let's start with the mental picture of the long cylindrical rocket up near the top, that's where the telescope was housed. The outer hole, which is shaped like a bullet, it breaks into two halves along the vertical seams, and then it falls away, then the engine nozzle that's on the bottom that separates. That's how you get to that's the last those are the last stages that leave you with nothing but the folded up telescope. Like I said, it's in this tall boxy shape similar to a refrigerator, although quite a bit bigger. And it really does look like a puzzle, right? If you are sighted, and you've seen a picture of the final configuration, when you're looking at this folded up puzzle, you can spot a few of the components. So there are parts of this golden honeycomb mirror that are on two sides. You can see okay, I think I know what those are going to be. And then there are two sides that look like tall panels that are made of pink tin foil. It's not clear looking at this puzzle how it's going to become the telescope and its final configuration. But 31 minutes after launch the salt what's called the solar array is deployed. So from the base of this tall fridge like box, there's a pink panel that unfolds like an accordion, and it appeared like it was flat against the side of the base and then the zigzag panels spread out and they open like an accordion, they open until they're flattened out. And they're sticking straight out of the base like a rigid doormat or maybe like a diving board that's connected at one end. So it's just sticking straight out. That's the solar array, two hours after launch, what's called the high gain antenna is deployed. And this is a relatively small, little conical radar dish that's on a bent arm, and it's simply tips down out of the base. So the base at the bottom of this thing just tips down and points, you know, our configuration we're going to use up down and so forth. So it's tipping down out of the bass. So three days after launch, they begin to deploy the sun shields, and this is a bit of a process is going to take a bit of time. So those two pink panels, they fall open one at a time, and they're hinged at the bottom, one falls to the side opposite the solar array. And then the other one drops down covering the entire solar array, and the solar array and the panel that just fell down on top of it are are kind of a back to back so that the solar panels are facing down away from the pink panel. So now what you have are two long pink panels lying more or less flat, and they are end to end. So what they kind of create is like a giant pink ruler shape. And the folded up mirror section is still standing in the middle. It's like a tower. And there are a pair of short posts at either end of the panels that are lying flat on the ground. And those short posts, they're going to be important later on. So the next day, the towers deployed, so that tower of mirrors it's all folded up. It is deployed and visually what that means is it just rises up a little bit on a telescoping base. It's not particularly dramatic, it just rises up a little bit. On day five. NASA has what they call the momentum flap deployment. So from underneath the end of one of those horizontal panels, there's a smaller silver panel and it flips up and unfolds and then the sunshield membrane cover is released. Basically what this means is the pink outer layer of those now horizontal panels, they roll up along the sides and they reveal a shiny silver material that's underneath. on day six. The sunshield mid boom is deployed. So out of the base, there's a thin arm that begins to extend and it also has a short post on the end that matches the posts on the ends of the panels. So if we need a little bit of orientation help here, so if the uncovered horizontal panels are pointing north and south, this arm begins extending to the east, okay? And what it does is it drags behind it that silver material that was uncovered, and this is the sunshield in the animation. It looks quite liquidy smooth, like it looks like liquid silver kind of like the special effects from the Terminator movies. But I dug a little bit deeper and I found footage of the actual sunshield being deployed and tested in a lab setting some great time lapse footage. Dozens of scientists in lab coats and what looked like shower caps scuttling about in fast motion.

Christine Malec:

Huck huck.

JJ Hunt:

And they're all in a cluster studying various parts On day seven, the membrane is tensioned. So what of the sunshield as its unfolding. And in that video,

Christine Malec:

Um hm, um hmm. looked like one sheet actually has five layers. And remember the material looks like you know, those metallic emergency blankets?

JJ Hunt:

It looks like that. It looks very delicate, like tin those short posts that are the ends of the arms and the panels, what happens is those five layers spread themselves out foil, really. It's a composite material they call Kapton. At vertically, one by one attached at the corners to those posts, so they slide up the posts until they're all evenly spaced. And any rate, the you've got this arm that emerges to the east and so what you end up with is five taut layers of this silver diamond shaped sheets separated by airspaces. Well, I guess it's it's pulling this metallic sheet with it. And then once it's it's in space, so not really air spaces, but space spaces. So this layering helps reduce the heat from the sun that's at the back of the telescope. That's what all of this has been about. extended, another arm comes out to the West and pulls a metallic And this is becomes visually, you know, one of the main elements of the Webb telescope is this five layered diamond sheet with it. So now you have basically the arms of a cross shaped sheets of of what look like foil. Alright, so that that last section went from day seven, we're now up to day 10, right and they and now you've got these sheets that are being that takes quite a bit of time that the tensioning of the membrane and getting all of that right takes a bit of time. So pulled out and stretched to all corners. And these sheets are day 10, we get the secondary mirror support structure. So all this time, we've been concentrating on the sunshield, diamond shape to properly envision how this is all the actual telescope mirror has been still folded up in a tower just waiting. And at this point, the golden honeycomb tiles that unfolding. Maybe let's think about it in reverse. Maybe are the main part of the mirror, those are easily discernible, and there's a central panel, which is lined with most of the that'll help make it a little clearer. So imagine you have a hexagonal tiles, and it's got a black nubbin in the center. On the sides. There are narrower panels with three stacked big sheet that shaped more or less like a like a diamond and hexagons apiece, but the support structure so this is what this day is all about is the support structure. So dropping down off it's laying flat like on the ground. If you take the side the front of the bigger central panel is what looks like a thin aluminum frame with three legs. And the legs are connected to corners and fold them up with an accordion fold like you would the bottom corners and the center of the top. Essentially, this is a tripod on its side pointing out from the face of fold a paper fan, fold them all the way until what you have left the mirror like a big nose. So instead of a tripod that kind of you just put a camera on or something like that, that would is this long narrow strip like a giant ruler. So that's how the stand up on three legs, those three legs are supporting it so that it goes directly out from the main mirror. On day 11. The aft radiator is deployed. This is just a little bit of sunshield is folded up. So when the cross frame starts to open unfolding equipment at the backside of the mirror on day 12. One of the side panels with the three stacked hexagonal up, it unfolds it bit by bit by bit by bit until you have a tiles, it opens up like hinges on a door, and it clicks into place to become part of the main mirror. And all of that brings relatively taut diamond shape made out of this what looks like us to January 8, that's when the last remaining component that the second wing, it was opened up and clicked into place. And tin foil sheet. So that's the sunshield opening up. And that is what completed the 21 foot honeycomb mirror in the middle. So what you end up with visually is this diamond shape really, it's like a kite shape and it's about the size of a the stack of five diamond shaped sheets of tin. And then on top of it, this slightly concave mirror that really kind of looks tennis court. These are really it's quite quite big. But we're like a like a radar dish with this. This tripod sticking out in front of it and it's holding a secondary mirror facing the not fully done with the sunshield yet. primary mirror. And that's what the telescope is.

Christine Malec:

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Launch
Computer Visualization
Unfolding