NASA and ESA have relied on the technology and science developed by Airbus CRISA, IberEspacio, Airbus Space Systems España, INTA and CAB.

Spaniards aboard the James Webb

photo_camera PHOTO/ESA-Ducros - - Placed in space folded by an Ariane 5 launcher, during the next few weeks it will extend the sunshield that insulates it from solar radiation and then the primary mirror formed by hexagonal pieces coated with gold.

In collaboration with NASA of the United States and the European Space Agency (ESA) and Canada (CSA), Spanish science and technology have contributed to making the main international space observatory ever put into orbit a reality. 

Named James Webb, it has been navigating the cosmos since midday on December 25, Christmas Day, and in a month's time will be at its final destination, 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.

Positioned at such an immense distance, its enormous sensitivity in the infrared spectrum will allow it to look back more than 13.5 billion years and offer a totally new vision of the Universe around us. It will help to solve the unknowns of our Solar System, to observe the first galaxies and the birth of stars and planets, and to examine exoplanets for conditions conducive to life.

ESPAÑOLES EN EL James Webb

From its ultimate stationary position in the Lagrangian L2 zone, where the gravitational forces of the Sun and Earth are balanced, its sophisticated, high-quality imaging cameras and ultra-sensitive instruments in the infrared spectrum will be fully operational from mid-2022, when it will begin to record the faintest signals from the far reaches of the cosmos.

The antennas onboard the JWST - an acronym for James Webb Space Telescope - will send 300 Gigabits of data back to Earth every day, so that the international scientific community can extract detailed information about our cosmic origins and how galaxies formed and evolved, changing our understanding of the Universe.
 

españoles en el Webb

In two of four instruments
Engineers, technicians and scientists from the companies IberEspacio, Airbus Space Systems España and Airbus CRISA, together with others from the National Institute for Aerospace Technology (INTA) and the Center for Astrobiology (CAB) have been directly involved in making two of the four ultra-sensitive instruments onboard JWST a reality. They are not physically on board, but their imprint and knowledge are on the James Webb.

The work of Spanish companies and institutions has been funded since 2001 by the State Research Agency, the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the European Space Agency (ESA) in the framework of different national and international research programs.

Españoles en el Webb

The Spanish contribution has been focused on the camera and spectrograph of the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) and the Near Infrared Spectrograph, known as NIRSpec, acronym for Near Infrared Spectrograph. It is worth remembering that a spectrograph is an instrument that separates light into its different colors or wavelengths, allowing observations of celestial bodies to discover their composition, density, temperature and motion.

The raison d'être of NIRSpec is to obtain a deep insight into the evolution of the Universe and to provide data and information on the formation of stars and galaxies in their first hundreds of millions of years. At its headquarters in Tres Cantos (Madrid), Airbus CRISA has developed its electronic component, which "selects and focuses with great precision the stars, galaxies, nebulae and the atmosphere of the exoplanets to be observed," explains Margarita Pereira. Its thermal resolution reaches such an extreme that "from Earth it is capable of detecting the light of a match on the Moon".

Españoles en el Webb

Airbus CRISA has also implemented its highly sophisticated software, which can be reconfigured and upgraded in flight, as part of the telescope's control system supervised by the JWST's central computer. This circumstance has required that "Spanish engineers have worked side by side with NASA and ESA teams," says Margarita Pereira, head of the program at the Spanish company.
 
Working side by side with NASA and ESA
With Professor Santiago Arribas, as principal investigator coordinating the work of the three companies, the IberEspacio company headed by Alejandro Torres has manufactured the cover of the NIRSpec optical system, while the complex cryogenic cabling that connects the different elements of the instrument has been materialized by Airbus Space Systems of Barajas (Madrid).

The proximity between the cable network and the telescope's optics has required "applying very extreme standards of cleanliness by particle counting and passing rigorous tests," says María de los Ángeles Esteban, head of the program. But it has been possible to ensure that there are no interferences and to detect simultaneously in the near infrared at -235º Celsius the very weak radiation of more than a hundred stars or galaxies.

Espñoles en el Webb

The MIRI infrared instrument is the most advanced of those sent into space, combining a camera and a spectrograph. Its role is to analyze very old and distant stellar populations, regions of stars hidden by thick layers of dust, hydrogen emissions from unimaginable distances, faint comets and the chemical composition of the atmospheres of extrasolar planets. It has been the work of NASA, the University of Arizona and a consortium of European research institutes, including INTA and CSIC.

Under the direction of Professor Luis Colina as Spanish principal investigator and European co-principal investigator, several engineering teams from INTA -among them the optics team led by Lola Sabau and together with the engineering company Lidax-, have made possible the simulator that interconnects the telescope's signal with MIRI. Its function is to reproduce the conditions of high vacuum and temperatures of -100º Celsius existing in deep space.

Españoles en el Webb

MIRI will perform 3D spectroscopy and obtain around 900 spectra simultaneously. For Luis Colina, MIRI is an instrument that "will provide unique data and information on the formation of stars and galaxies in the Universe in their first hundreds of millions of years".
 

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