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Almost two dozen countries are helping to build the James Webb
Space Telescope.
Canada is responsible for what some call the observatory
steering wheel, otherwise known as the Fine Guidance Sensor,
or FGS.
The Canadians are also delivering
one of the four scientific instruments
on the telescope, the Near-Infrared Imager
and Slitless Spectrograph.
To find out more about the FGS and NIRISS,
we are here at the Canadian Space Agency's David Florida
Laboratory in Ottawa, Canada.
So Karl, why did you want to meet here in a chamber?
Right now, we're standing in front of the thermal vacuum
chamber, where we've tested the instruments in the vacuum
of space and also in the cold environment
in which it's going to operate.
So it's key for us to demonstrate
that our system, which has to be very sensitive, but also
has to be robust enough to survive
the conditions of the mission.
Was there some other technology that
helped develop the Fine Guidance and the NIRISS?
Yes, in fact, our prime contractor, COMDEV Canada,
developed some star tracking software
for other missions and also missions
that are currently ongoing.
So we built on that heritage to build
the software for this mission.
So were there any other challenges
you had to overcome to build FGS and NIRISS?
In fact, our team is spread over three time zones.
So in order to keep communications
flowing and also getting decisions and as much
as real time as possible, that was a challenge.
But we had a good team, a team that really believed
in the mission, so we were very cohesive,
and we were able to overcome that.
I understand the FGS and NIRISS are actually here
in the building.
That's right.
This is their home, so if you want,
we can go over and take a look at them in the tent.
Sounds good.
Good.
On the top here, what we have is the Fine Guidance Sensor.
It will basically point the telescope
and keep the telescope stabilized so we get
really sharp images from that.
And on the other side, we have NIRISS.
It has a particular capability to detect exoplanets.
These are planets that will be circulating around a star,
and hopefully at the same time detect
if they have atmospheres.
And if they do have atmospheres, know exactly what
these atmospheres contain.
And is it capable of sustaining life?
Now, I understand Fine Guidance has a redundancy built in,
right?
That's right.
The Fine Guidance Sensor has two cameras,
and both function the same way.
And if we have a problem with one of the channels,
we can switch over to the other one
and not lose any capability, any performance.
NIRISS, our science instrument, can also
perform guidance functions.
So it's like as if we have a third level of redundancy
as part of the Canadian package.
Thank you, Karl, for showing us the Fine Guidance
Sensor and the NIRISS.
You're very welcome, Mary.
So there you have it, Canada's contribution
to the James Webb Space Telescope.
Thanks for joining us for yet another edition
of Behind the Webb.
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