Webb Telescope Mirror DINGED By Meteorite

[25.BX945]

https://phys.org/news/2022-06-james-webb-telescope-micrometeoroid-nasa.html

A mirror on the James Webb Space Telescope was struck by
a micrometeoroid last month but is expected to continue
to function normally, NASA said Thursday.

"After initial assessments, the team found the telescope
is still performing at a level that exceeds all mission
requirements despite a marginally detectable effect in
the data," the US space agency said.

"Webb's beginning-of-life performance is still well above
expectations, and the observatory is fully capable of
performing the science it was designed to achieve," it added.

. . .

After all the years of waiting, now they've BROKEN
the thing .... won't ever be quite what it was meant
to be. And barely six months ... how often can we
expect the little rocks to sand-blast it ?

The "fully exposed" design DID save money/weight BUT
it also leaves the mirror exposed over a full 180
to any flying specks. There's also an issue with an
IR scope - any outer casing might get warm enough
to "glow white" in the target wavelengths, it would
have to be more than a monolayer of tin foil, so
to speak, to get around that.

Oh well, call Musk. Present the issue correctly, get
him interested, and he surely could at least get a
tiny maint-bot out to the thing and dab a teeny amount
of IR-dark paint over the scratched section. That'd
improve the signal/noise ratio.

But how OFTEN will such fixes be necessary ? That's
the multi-billion-dollar question. Whatever anybody
PLANNED to do with Webb - prioritize and STEP IT UP.
It may have a far shorter useful life than expected.

Oh, and that brings us to Hubble - the really good
non-IR scope. How long before IT breaks once and
for all ? There's really no replacement, and if
Webb has a short lifetime then we'll have NOTHING.
China could probably build something at least as
good as Hubble quick - but good luck getting any
of the DATA from them.