NASA Doubles Roman Telescope Lifespan to 22 Years as Wide Field Instrument Powers Up
Updated
Updated · Jalopnik · Sep 18
NASA Doubles Roman Telescope Lifespan to 22 Years as Wide Field Instrument Powers Up
3 articles · Updated · Jalopnik · Sep 18
Summary
22 years of projected life—up from 10—now appears possible for NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope before it even reaches L2, 1.5 million miles from Earth.
40 pounds of fuel, less than 10% of a 441-pound budget, were used in Roman's first trajectory burn, leaving enough propellant for smaller follow-up maneuvers and about eight extra years of science.
4,000 pounds of weight savings during construction let NASA fully fill Roman's fuel tank instead of only partially loading it, adding roughly four more years and bringing the total extension to 12 years.
NASA also activated Roman's Wide Field Instrument, cooling its detectors from 85F to minus 300F without issue; first images are expected after arrival at L2 late this year or early next year.
Roman's wide-field camera is designed to capture images 200 times Hubble's field of view, helping the mission survey more sky in five years than Hubble did in 30.