[MUSIC PLAYING] 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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