Inside NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., sits a massive thermal vacuum chamber called the Space Environment Simulator, or SES, that duplicates the vacuum and extreme temperatures of space. This new video shows how engineers at Goddard use the chamber to test equipment that will fly aboard NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. The giant SES is used to create both the temperature and hard vacuum of space. This 40-foot-tall, 27-foot-diameter cylindrical chamber eliminates the tiniest trace of air with vacuum pumps and uses liquid nitrogen and even colder liquid helium to drop temperatures to simulate those that exist in space.
The Near Infrared Spectrograph or NIRSpec is the James Webb Space Telescope's camera that uses infrared light to analyze the physical properties and chemical composition of distant galaxies, stars and planets.
The Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM), which is the heart of the Webb Telescope, is placed into the Space Environment Simulator (SES) at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center for cryogenic testing. During this test, the ISIM is supporting the Mid-InfraRed Instument (MIRI) and the Fine Guidance Sensor / Near InfraRed Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (FGS/NIRISS).
The ISIM is the element of the Webb that contains all four of its scientific instruments. The ISIM is being tested to verify that it will operate as designed once it is in space, before it is integrated with other elements of Webb. For this particular test, known as "Cryo-Vac 1 -- Risk Reduction," only two of the instruments are included: the Fine Guidance Sensor and Near Infrared Imaging Slitless Spectrograph (FGS/NIRISS) and the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). During the months-long test, the ISIM itself will cool to around -387 F (-233 C or 40 kelvins), which is the temperature that it will operate at in space. The objective of this test is to exercise all the testing systems and procedures and to check initial ISIM performance before final verification testing of the entire flight ISIM with all four of the scientific instruments installed. Webb is an international project led by NASA with its partners the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. MIRI was built by a European consortium together with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. It took eight years to design, build and test. MIRI was the first of Webb''s four instruments to be delivered to NASA for integration into the observatory. Webb is an international project led by NASA with its partners the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.
Thanks for watching! https://www.youtube.com/user/slickJR1000
This Video is Public Domain