NASA’s Deep Space Network Turns 60 and Prepares for the Future

por admin | 22 diciembre, 2023 - 6:07 pm |22 diciembre, 2023 Astronomy

NASA’s Deep Space Network Turns 60 and Prepares for the Future

The radio antennas of the NASA’s Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex are located near the Australian capital. It’s one of three Deep Space Network complexes around the world that keep the agency in contact with over 40 space missions. The DSN marks its 60th anniversary in December 2023.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

A single radio antenna dish stands alone at the Deep Space Network’s Canberra complex in this photo from 1969, six years after the DSN was founded. Canberra now consists of three 34-meter (112-foot) antennas and one 70-meter (230-foot) antenna.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

The agency’s DSN provides critical communications and navigation services to dozens of space missions, and it’s being modernized to support dozens more.

NASA’s Deep Space Network marks its 60th year on Dec. 24. In continuous operations since 1963, the DSN is what makes it possible for NASA to communicate with spacecraft at or beyond the Moon. The dazzling galactic images captured by the James Webb Space Telescope, the cutting-edge science data being sent back from Mars by the Perseverance rover, and the historic images sent from the far side of the Moon by Artemis I – they all reached Earth via the network’s giant radio dish antennas.

During 2024, these and other historic contributions from the past 60 years will be celebrated by NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) program, which manages and directs the ground-based facilities and services that the DSN provides.

More than 40 missions depend on the network, which is expected to support twice that number in the coming years. That’s why NASA is looking to the future by expanding and modernizing this critical global infrastructure with new dishes, new technologies, and new approaches.

“The DSN is the heart of NASA – it has the vital job of keeping the data flowing between Earth and space,” said Philip Baldwin, acting director of the network services division for SCaN at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “But to support our growing portfolio of robotic missions, and now the human Artemis missions to the Moon, we need to push forward with the next phase of DSN modernization.”

Meeting Added Demands

Managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California for SCaN, the DSN allows missions to track, send commands to, and receive scientific data from faraway spacecraft. To ensure those spacecraft can always connect with Earth, the DSN’s 14 antennas are divided between three complexes spaced equally around the world – in Goldstone, California; Canberra, Australia; and Madrid, Spain.

The Deep Space Network is much more than a deep space messaging service. Learn more about how the DSN carries out radio and gravity science experiments throughout the solar system. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

To make sure the network can maximize coverage between so many missions, schedulers work with DSN team members to secure network support for critical operations. For more efficiency, NASA has also changed how the network is operated: With a protocol called “Follow the Sun,” each complex takes turns running the entire network during their day shift and then hands off control to the next complex at the end of the day in that region – essentially, a global relay race that takes place every 24 hours. The cost savings, in turn, help fund DSN enhancements.

At the same time, NASA has been busy making improvements to increase capacity, from upgrading and adding dishes to developing new technologies that will help support more spacecraft and dramatically increase the amount of data that can be delivered.

One such technology is laser, or optical, communications, which could enable more data to be packed into transmissions. “Laser communications could transform how NASA communicates with faraway space missions,” said Amy Smith, deputy project manager for the DSN at JPL.

After successfully testing the technique in Earth orbit and out to the Moon, NASA is currently using the DSOC (Deep Space Optical Communications) technology demonstration to test laser communications from ever-greater distances. Riding aboard the agency’s Psyche mission, DSOC has already sent video via laser to Earth from 19 million miles (31 million kilometers) away and aims to prove that high-bandwidth data can be sent from as far away as Mars.

“NASA is proving that laser communication is viable, so now we are looking at ways to build optical terminals inside the existing radio antennas,” said Smith. “These hybrid antennas will be able to still transmit and receive radio frequencies but will also support optical frequencies.”

Technological Heritage

New technology is something that NASA and the DSN have embraced from their inception. The network’s roots extend to 1958, when JPL was contracted by the U.S. Army to deploy portable radio tracking stations to receive telemetry of the first successful U.S. satellite, Explorer 1, which JPL built. A few days after Explorer 1’s launch, but before the creation of NASA later that year, JPL was tasked with figuring out what would be needed to create an unprecedented telecommunications network to support future deep space missions, beginning with the early Pioneer missions.

After NASA formed in 1958, JPL’s ground stations were named Deep Space Information Facilities, and they operated largely independently from one another until 1963. That’s when the DSN was officially founded and the ground stations were connected to JPL’s new network control center, which was nearing completion. Called the Space Flight Operations Facility, that building remains the “Center of the Universe” through which data from the DSN’s three global complexes flows.

“We have six decades driving technological innovation, supporting hundreds of missions that have made countless discoveries about our planet and the universe it inhabits,” said Bradford Arnold, deputy director for the Interplanetary Network at JPL. “Our amazing workforce that continues to drive that innovation today forms a steadfast foundation upon which we can build the next 60 years of space exploration and scientific advancement.”

For more information about the DSN, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/communicating-with-missions/dsn/

News Media Contact

Ian J. O’Neill
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-2649
ian.j.oneill@jpl.nasa.gov

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Naomi Hartono

On Cupid! On, Donner and BARREL!

por admin | 22 diciembre, 2023 - 6:07 pm |22 diciembre, 2023 Astronomy

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On Cupid! On, Donner and BARREL!

Four reindeer walk past the BARREL payload. Two are on the left of the payload and two are on the right. The payload looks like a large white box with red square patches on two sides, resting atop a platform with four wheels. The ground is brown with small rocks, and in the background, a forest of green trees spreads over hills in the distance. The sky is overcast.

NASA

In this image from Dec. 8, 2017, four reindeer walk past the Balloon Array for Radiation-belt Relativistic Electron Losses, or BARREL, payload on the launch pad at Esrange Space Center near Kiruna, Sweden. BARREL primarily measured X-rays in Earth’s atmosphere near the North and South Poles. These X-rays are caused by electrons that rain down, or precipitate, into the atmosphere from the giant swaths of radiation that surround Earth, called the Van Allen Belts. Understanding this radiation and its interaction with Earth’s atmosphere helps us to learn about planetary radiation belts, and to better protect satellites that orbit Earth.

The primary BARREL mission ended when scientists sent their last balloon over Sweden on Aug. 30, 2016. Recovered BARREL payloads were launched as targets of opportunities on three additional flights. In addition to X-ray instruments, several of the BARREL balloons also carried instruments built by undergraduate students to measure the total electron content of Earth’s ionosphere, as well as the low-frequency electromagnetic waves that help to scatter electrons into Earth’s atmosphere.

See more photos from the BARREL mission.

Image Credit: NASA

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Monika Luabeya

NASA Issues New Space Security Best Practices Guide

por admin | 22 diciembre, 2023 - 6:07 pm |22 diciembre, 2023 Astronomy

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NASA Issues New Space Security Best Practices Guide

NASA Logo.

NASA

As space missions and technologies grow increasingly interconnected, NASA has released the first iteration of its Space Security Best Practices Guide to bolster mission cybersecurity efforts for both public sector and private sector space activities.

The guide represents a significant milestone in NASA’s commitment to ensuring the longevity and resilience of its space missions and will serve as a resource for enhancing their security and reliability.

Additionally, the Space Security Best Practices Guide was designed to benefit users beyond NASA – international partners, industry, and others working in the expanding fields of space exploration and development. The guide is designed to provide security guidance for missions, programs, or projects of any size.

“At NASA, we recognize the importance of protecting our space missions from potential threats and vulnerabilities” said Misty Finical, deputy principal advisor for Enterprise Protection at NASA. “This guide represents a collective effort to establish a set of principles that will enable us to identify and mitigate risks and ensure continued success of our missions, both in Earth’s orbit and beyond.”

In terms of both information systems and operational technologies, space systems are becoming more integrated and interconnected. These developments carry benefits – NASA and other organizations have unprecedented new possibilities for working, communicating, and gathering data in space. But new, complex systems can also have vulnerabilities. Through its new guide, NASA aims to provide best practices for adapting to these new challenges and implementing safety and security measures.

The guide reflects NASAs continued commitment to helping develop clear cybersecurity principles for its space systems, encapsulated in its Space System Protection Standard. The agency developed the handbook to further support the goals of Space Policy Directive 5, Cybersecurity Principles for Space Systems.

NASA will collect feedback from the space community to integrate into future versions of the guide.

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Jennifer M. Dooren

A Look Through Time with NASA’s Lead Photographer for the James Webb Space Telescope

por admin | 22 diciembre, 2023 - 6:06 pm |22 diciembre, 2023 Astronomy

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A Look Through Time with NASA’s Lead Photographer for the James Webb Space Telescope

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A Look Through Time with NASA’s Lead Photographer for the James Webb Space Telescope

This self portrait of Chris Gunn, standing in front of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope from inside the Goddard Space Flight Center cleanroom, was captured November 10, 2016.

Credits:
NASA/Chris Gunn

Nearly two years ago in the early morning hours of Dec. 25, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope successfully took flight from the jungle-encircled ELA-3 launch complex at Europe’s Spaceport near Kourou, French Guiana. Following a successful deployment in space, and the precise alignment of the telescope’s mirrors and instruments, Webb began science operations nearly six months after liftoff. As the two-year anniversary of the launch aboard ESA’s (European Space Agency) Ariane 5 rocket approaches, Webb’s lead photographer Chris Gunn has remastered a selection of his favorite images from his career, including one previously unreleased image.

The opportunity to be the visual spokesperson for a mission of this magnitude was the experience of a lifetime

Chris GUNN

NASA/GSFC Lead Photographer for Webb Telescope

Since the fall of 2009, Gunn has routinely worked through holidays and weekends, and has spent much of these years on the road, ensuring that the Webb telescope’s progress is visually chronicled and shared with the world. As the various parts and components of Webb began to be assembled and tested throughout the country, Gunn and his camera followed along, capturing the historic development of NASA’s premier space telescope. Though Gunn’s images display the complex nature of the telescope aesthetically, these images also serve as critical engineering bookmarks that the team routinely relied on to document that Webb’s construction was sound before launch. 

Following the launch of Webb, Gunn is now chronicling NASA’s next flagship space telescope, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

All images below, credit NASA/Chris Gunn.

A diverse group of people in white cleanroom suits carefully inspect a single golden faced, hexagonal mirror from the James Webb Space Telescope. Many faces all stare intently, some using flashlights, to examine the mirror surface. Reflected on the surface is the face and intense eye contact from one engineer, and the bright reflection of his flashlight shining directly at the viewer. Behind this engineer, a stainless-steel lens cap used to safely transport the mirror, nearly the size of a human body, rests on scaffolding, still attached by ropes to the crane that lifted it off the mirror moments before. In the background, gray and light blue walls lay behind several other components of Webb scattered around the cleanroom floor. To the right of the frame, a structure made of long overlapping black struts that appear like scaffolding sits on top of a lift table that is meant to safely move the structure up and down.

On Nov. 6, 2012, engineers and technicians inspected one of the first of Webb’s 18 hexagonal mirrors to arrive at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

NASA/Chris Gunn

The covers being removed from the hexagonal gold mirrors of the James Webb Space Telescope. Two people in cleanroom “bunny” suits lay on diving boards over the mirror, which lays face pointed up, very carefully removing the covers one at a time. In this photo 6 covers have been removed, revealing the golden mirrors beneath. These are the 4 center line mirrors and two in the 4 and 5 o’clock positions. The two workers each hold part of another cover as they remove it. The worker on the right is reflected in the mirrors. Each of the black covers has a white sign on it noting which mirror segment it is. Each segment has a unique designation including A, B, or C and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 depending on its prescription and location.

Inside a clean room at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, on the afternoon of April 25, 2016, the James Webb Space Telescope primary mirrors were uncovered in preparation for installation of its scientific instruments.

NASA/Chris Gunn

Traveling alongside Webb as it grew and evolved, and to be able to add my signature to each photograph captured, was of course an honor, but also an immense challenge. With each image, I wanted to express the awe that I felt seeing Webb integrated right before my eyes, knowing that it was destined to shed new light on the mysteries of the cosmos.

CHRIS GUNN

NASA/GSFC Lead Photographer for Webb Telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope mirrors upright on a white stand in the NASA Goddard cleanroom. The 3 mirrors on the right “wing” are folding back like a leaf on a drop-leaf table. The telescope has 18 golden hexagonal segments. The secondary mirror support structure, made of three thin black lines, is folded and the secondary mirror sits atop this folded tripod. There are 5 people in white cleanroom suits supervising the folding maneuver. One of them is on a red lift at the back right. There is a wall of HEPA filters behind the telescope.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is shown with one of its two “wings” folded. Each wing holds three of its primary mirror segments. During this operation in the clean room at NASA Goddard, the telescope was also rotated in preparation for the folding back of the other wing. When Webb launched, both wings were stowed in this position, which enabled the mirror to fit into the launch vehicle. This image was captured July 17, 2016.

NASA/Chris Gunn

The silvery James Webb Space Telescope instrument module is enclosed in a metallic gold-colored structure. NASA photographer Desiree Stover stands to the left, holding some equipment and facing the hardware. She is wearing a white cleanroom suit. She and the hardware are inside a round, black chamber, which is inside Goddard’s large thermal vacuum chamber where the instrument is tested at its extremely cold operating temperatures.

Dressed in a clean room suit, NASA photographer Desiree Stover shines a light on the Space Environment Simulator’s integration frame inside the thermal vacuum chamber at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. This image was captured Aug. 29, 2013.

NASA/Chris Gunn

Webb’s instrument module is integrated onto the back of the telescope, right behind the mirrors. The telescope is facedown on a white stand, with the golden mirrors facing down. The secondary mirror support structure is folded over the mirrors, with the round back of the secondary mirrors facing the camera. Behind it is a black radiator panel. The instrument module is being lowered by a crane. The 4 science instruments are visible through the module structure. In the background is a wall of HEPA filters that help keep the NASA Goddard cleanroom clean.

On May 19, 2016, inside a massive clean room at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Webb’s Integrated Science Instrument Module was lowered into the Optical Telescope Element.

NASA/Chris Gunn

The Webb telescope mirrors are shown in the NASA Goddard cleanroom, with a clean tent, which looks like a giant rectangle made of clear plastic tarp, half over the mirrors. A crane is lowering it down. The mirrors are gold hexagons. The three on each side wing are folded back like a drop leaf table. The telescope is being prepped for vibration testing. For testing, it has to be removed from the cleanroom, so the tent will protect it while it is being tested. There are multiple people in white cleanroom suits that cover them from head to toe and protect the cleanroom from hair and skin cells and contaminants on clothes. Two of the people are on a blue lift to the right of the telescope, and one on a red and silver left to the left, inspecting the work. There is a yellow ladder at far left. There are various white support structures. The wall at far right is covered in HEPA filters. The very large cleanroom door is directly behind the telescope.

Taken on Nov. 16, 2016, inside NASA Goddard’s largest clean room Webb’s Optical Telescope Element and Integrated Science Instrument Module – together called “OTIS” – are shrouded with a “clean tent” as the team prepared for Webb’s first vibration testing, which took place just outside the clean room.

NASA/Chris Gunn

To capture Webb in its true beauty, I employed the use of specialized lighting rigs, often setting up lights early before the start of work. Johnson Space Center’s Chamber A was an especially tough subject to shoot once Webb was inside. It required remote lights that had to be adjusted perfectly before I boarded a boom lift to make the photograph from seven stories up. It was all worth it, everyone’s hard work – just look at how well our starship is performing

Chris Gunn

NASA/GSFC Lead Photographer for Webb Telescope

The Webb telescope enters the giant Chamber A thermal vacuum chamber at NASA Johnson. At this point, Webb consists of mirrors and instruments but has not yet been mated with the sunshield or spacecraft bus. Webb is on its back, golden hexagonal mirrors face up. The secondary mirror support structure is extended like a tripod above the primary mirrors. The telescope lies on black and silver support equipment. It is half in the giant mouth of the cavernous test chamber. The chamber is filled with test equipment and people in cleanroom suits. One of them stands on top of a red ladder.

On June 20, 2017, Webb’s Optical Telescope Element and science instruments were loaded into the historic thermal vacuum testing facility known as “Chamber A” at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

NASA/Chris Gunn

On Sept. 16, 2021, Webb was ready to be shipped to the launch site in French Guiana. Before Webb could be lifted into its shipping container, engineers and technicians at Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach, California, performed this first horizontal tilt of the fully assembled observatory.

NASA/Chris Gunn

Image taken in a cleanroom at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Dozens of cleanroom technicians, wearing white contamination-control suits and blue gloves, stand towards the left side of this image. On the right side is the Webb telescope in its folded configuration. Its purple sunshield pallets enclose its hexagonal, gold-colored mirror segments. Other hardware, wires, and equipment are located around the cleanroom, which features bright white walls.

This never-before-seen image shows engineers and technicians disassembling ground hardware after completing one of the final lifts of the Webb observatory, before being placed atop ESA’s (European Space Agency) Ariane 5 rocket in French Guiana. This image was taken Nov. 11, 2021.

NASA/Chris Gunn

Webb’s Ariane 5 rocket launches from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. A glowing, white-yellow stream of gas and fire is streaming from the rocket towards the ground below. The ground is covered with puffy clouds of pink-orange gas. In the background, lit up by the launch, is a building that is emblazoned with dark blue European Space Agency (ESA) and Ariane logos. The sky is a dark blue-gray and largely cloudy.

“Liftoff – from a tropical rainforest to the edge of time itself, James Webb begins a voyage back to the birth of the universe.” Arianespace’s Ariane 5 rocket launched with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope aboard, Dec. 25, 2021, from the ELA-3 Launch Zone of Europe’s Spaceport at the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana.

NASA/Chris Gunn

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.

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Right click the images in this article to open a version in a new tab/window that can be zoomed or saved.

Media Contacts

Thaddeus Cesari Thaddeus.cesari@nasa.gov, Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov, Rob Gutro– rob.gutro@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, , Greenbelt, Md.

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Meet the Infrared Telescopes That Paved the Way for NASA’s Webb

por admin | 22 diciembre, 2023 - 6:05 pm |22 diciembre, 2023 Astronomy

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Meet the Infrared Telescopes That Paved the Way for NASA’s Webb

Scientists have been studying the universe with infrared space telescopes for 40 years, including these NASA missions, from left: the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), launched in 1983; the Spitzer Space Telescope, launched in 2003; and the James Webb Space Telescope, launched in 2021.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

The Webb telescope has opened a new window onto the universe, but it builds on missions going back 40 years, including Spitzer and the Infrared Astronomical Satellite.

On Dec. 25, NASA will celebrate the two-year launch anniversary of the James Webb Space Telescope – the largest and most powerful space observatory in history. The clarity of its images has inspired the world, and scientists are just beginning to explore the scientific bounty it is returning.

Webb’s success builds on four decades of space telescopes that also detect infrared light (which is invisible to the naked eye) – in particular the work of two retired NASA telescopes with big anniversaries this past year: January marked the 40th year since the launch of the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), while August marked the 20th launch anniversary of the Spitzer Space Telescope.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope builds on four decades of work by space telescopes that also detect infrared light, in particular two other retired NASA telescopes: the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) and the Spitzer Space Telescope. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

This heritage shines through in NASA’s images of Rho Ophiuchi, one of the closest star-forming regions to Earth. IRAS was the first infrared telescope ever launched into Earth orbit, above the atmosphere that blocks most infrared wavelengths. Rho Ophiuchi’s thick clouds of gas and dust block visible light, but IRAS’ infrared vision made it the first observatory to be able to pierce those layers to reveal newborn stars nestled deep inside.

Twenty years later, Spitzer’s multiple infrared detectors helped astronomers assign more specific ages to many of the stars in the region, providing insights about how young stars throughout the universe evolve. Webb’s even more detailed infrared view shows jets bursting from young stars, as well as disks of material around them – the makings of future planetary systems.

Clouds of gas and dust in space – like Rho Ophiuchi, shown here – mostly radiate infrared light, which human eyes can’t detect. IRAS, the first infrared telescope in Earth orbit, imaged the region in 1983 and revealed previously hidden features, including newly forming stars nestled deep inside the dust.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

Rho Ophiuchi was also imaged by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. Spitzer had a wider field of view and better resolution than its predecessors, providing this more detailed image of the region as well as more information about star formation.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Harvard-Smithsonian CfA

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has revealed Rho Ophiuchi like never before, showing new features of the star-forming region to astronomers in this stunning 2023 image. Webb builds on the legacy of infrared telescopes like IRAS and Spitzer.

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Klaus Pontoppidan (STScI)

Another example is Fomalhaut, a star surrounded by a disk of debris similar to our asteroid belt. Forty years ago, the disk was one of IRAS’ major discoveries because it also strongly suggested the presence of at least one planet, at a time when no planets had yet been found outside the solar system. Subsequent observations by Spitzer showed the disk had two sections – a cold, outer region and a warm, inner region – and revealed more evidence of the presence of planets.

Many other telescopes, including NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, have since studied Fomalhaut, and earlier this year, images from Webb gave scientists their clearest view of the disk structure yet. It revealed two previously unseen rings of rock and gas in the inner disk. Combining the work of generations of telescopes is bringing the story of Fomalhaut into sharp relief.

Visionary Infrared Astronomy Survey

When IRAS launched in 1983, scientists weren’t sure what the mission would reveal. They couldn’t predict that infrared would eventually be used in almost every area of astronomy, including studies of the evolution of galaxies, the life cycle of stars, the source of pervasive cosmic dust, the atmospheres of exoplanets, the movements of asteroids and other near-Earth objects, and even the nature of one of the biggest cosmological mysteries in history, dark energy.

IRAS set the stage for the European-led Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) and the Herschel Space Observatory; the Japanese-led AKARI satellite; NASA’s Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), and the agency’s airborne SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy), as well as many balloon-lofted observatories.

“Infrared light is essential for understanding where we came from and how we got here, on both the biggest and smallest astrophysical scales,” said Michael Werner, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Werner, who specializes in infrared observations, served as project scientist for Spitzer. “We use infrared to look back in space and time, to help us understand how the modern universe came to be. And infrared enables us to study the formation and evolution of stars and planets, which tells us about the history of our own solar system.”

On to Spitzer

If IRAS was a pathfinding mission, Spitzer was designed to dive deep into the infrared universe. Many of Webb’s planetary targets in its first year had already been studied with Spitzer, which pursued a broad range of science goals, thanks to its wide field of view and relatively high resolution. During its 16-year mission, Spitzer uncovered new wonders from the edge of the universe (including some of the most distant galaxies ever observed at the time) to our own solar system (such as a new ring around Saturn). Researchers were also surprised to find that the telescope was a perfect tool for studying exoplanets (planets beyond our solar system), something they hadn’t expected when building it.

“With any telescope, you’re not just taking data for the sake of it; you’re asking a particular question or a series of questions,” said Sean Carey, a former manager for the Spitzer Science Center at IPAC, a data and science processing center at Caltech. “The questions we’re able to ask with Webb are much more complex and varied because of the knowledge we acquired with telescopes like Spitzer and IRAS.”

For example, Carey said, “We studied exoplanets with Spitzer and Hubble, and we figured out what you can do with an infrared telescope in that field, what types of planets are most interesting, and what you can learn about them. So when Webb launched, we jumped into exoplanet studies right from the get-go.”

Webb, too, is paving the way for future infrared missions. NASA’s upcoming SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) mission as well as the agency’s next flagship observatory, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, will continue to explore the universe in infrared.

More About the Missions

IRAS was a joint project of NASA, the Netherlands Agency for Aerospace Programmes, and the United Kingdom’s Science and Engineering Research Council. The mission was managed for NASA by JPL. Caltech in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.

For more information about IRAS, visit:

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/infrared-astronomical-satellite-iras

JPL managed the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington until the mission was retired in January 2020. Science operations were conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech. Spacecraft operations were based at Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive operated by IPAC at Caltech.

For more information about Spitzer, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/spitzer

For more information about Webb, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/webb

News Media Contact

Calla Cofield
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
626-808-2469
calla.e.cofield@jpl.nasa.gov

2023-186

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NASA’s Deep Space Network Turns 60 and Prepares for the Future