The Roman telescope has enough gas for 22 years, double NASA's expectations
Summary
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launched successfully and is on a very precise path, using much less fuel than expected. This precision means the telescope has enough fuel to operate for at least 22 years, which is more than double NASA's original estimate.Key Facts
- The Roman Space Telescope cost $4.3 billion and launched on August 30 from Florida on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.
- It is designed to observe the universe with a field of view 100 times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope.
- The telescope carries 18 near-infrared detectors and will produce images like those from a 300-megapixel camera.
- It will orbit around the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point, about one million miles from Earth, taking 3 months to get there.
- The launch and early maneuvers used much less fuel than planned; only 40 pounds of fuel was used instead of the 441 pounds expected for the first maneuver.
- Because of the efficient launch and course correction, the fuel onboard can last at least 22 years, doubling the expected mission lifetime of 5 to 10 years.
- The telescope’s broad view aims to map galaxy clusters and help study dark energy, the force causing the universe’s expansion to speed up.
- The launch happened nine months earlier than planned and the telescope weighed about two tons less than its maximum allowed weight.
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