Connecting with the Webb Telescope's Fine Guidance Sensor
In this photo, technicians in the giant clean room at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. continue to check the Fine Guidance Sensor/Near InfraRed Imager and Slitless
Spectrograph (FGS/NIRISS) instrument that will fly onboard NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.
The braided metal cable that the technician on the left is holding is a ground wire used to keep static electrical charges from accumulating that might harm the instrument. The technician on the right is holding plastic tubing that keeps a constant flow of dry nitrogen gas flowing through the interior of the instrument to keep it clean and free of dust and other contaminants that could degrade its function.
The FGS is the device that will provide exquisite pointing and guiding control of the observatory for all of Webb¹s science instruments. The NIRISS will assist in detecting the universe’s first light, and detect and characterize exoplanets and their movement across (transit) stars.
The Canadian Space Agency's contribution to the Webb mission, the FGS/NIRISS arrived at NASA Goddard on July 30, 2012. The FGS/NIRISS is the second instrument to arrive at NASA Goddard that will fly aboard the James Webb Space Telescope. The Fine Guidance Sensor will enable the telescope to accurately and precisely point at the correct, intended objects for it to observe.
For more information about the James Webb Space Telescope, visit: www.jwst.nasa.gov
Photo Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn