When launched later this year on NASA’s Webb Space Telescope, the Airbus Near InfraRed Spectrograph (NIRSpec) – which is incorporated as a key instrument on the spacecraft – will provide deeper insights of the universe’s evolution.
NIRSpec was designed, developed, and integrated on the telescope by a team of more than 70 people at Airbus sites in Ottobrunn and Friedrichshafen, Germany, as well as Toulouse, France – with support from NASA and 17 European subcontractors.
It is one of four instruments on board the Webb Space Telescope (WST), which will succeed the Hubble Space Telescope as the next great space observatory. After launch, WST will embark on a month-long journey to its destination orbit around the second Lagrange point (L2), about 1.5 million kilometres away from Earth.
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Download free sample pages“I am very happy and excited to be still a part of the complete Webb team and to contribute to the greatest science story nowadays from the beginning to the end of commissioning. I am also very proud of the complete Airbus team working together as ONE team to make NIRSpec a success. Working with the complete Webb team all over the world (mainly with NASA) was and is the best experience I ever had.” Ralf Ehrenwinkler, Heaf of NIRSpec Programme
Deeper insights with NIRSpec
Known as the “super eye,” the NIRSpec instrument is a multi-object spectrograph capable of simultaneously measuring the near infrared spectrum of at least 100 objects – such as stars and galaxies – with various spectral resolutions down to 0.3 nanometres. The observations are performed over the wavelength range from 0.6 to 5.0 micrometres.
WST with the NIRSpec instrument will study the formation of the first stars and galaxies in our Universe, when it was only a few hundred million years old. NIRSpec will be able to capture the spectra of typically 60 to 200 galaxies at a time, allowing scientist to observe in exquisite details how they formed and evolved. Much closer to us, NIRSpec will also be able to study the atmosphere of exoplanets, these planets orbiting stars other than our Sun. It will, in particular, search for the signature of key molecules like water.
Due to NIRSpec’s excellent sensitivity, high resolution, and wide wavelength coverage, it is an ideal instrument to achieve a deeper insight of the evolution of the universe. It operates at -230 degrees Celsius and utilises a highly a-thermal concept (which prevents heat or changes in temperature), with the mirrors, mirror mounts, and optical bench base plate all manufactured out of Silicon Carbide Ceramic SiC 100®.
Commencing scientific operations
As the Webb Space Telescope will be observing the very faint infrared signals of very distant objects, this multi-billion-dollar space observatory needs to be shielded from any bright, hot sources – including the satellite itself. WST’s sunshield serves to separate the sensitive mirrors and instruments not only from the Sun and Earth/Moon, but from the spacecraft bus, as well.
Once the observatory has cooled down and stabilised at its frigid operating temperature in orbit, several months of alignments to its optics and calibrations of scientific instruments will occur. Scientific operations are expected to commence approximately six months after WST’s launch.
Airbus will support NIRSpec from liftoff to through the space telescope’s end-of-the commissioning phase. This includes monitoring its parameters 24/7 during the critical cool-down phase in space and initial functional testing when the NIRSpec instrument is turned on. The Airbus engineering team will continue to provide support from performance check-out and calibration through the WST’s commissioning.
Additional Facts
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) - carrying two Airbus instruments - will be launched from French Guiana on an Ariane 5 rocket. Here’s our top ten facts you need to know about the Hubble successor.
