The launch of the Weber Space Telescope on December 25, 2021, made the astronomical community around the world boil, and they praised it as a major event in the history of human spaceflight.
The Weber Space Telescope is currently the largest space telescope in the astronomical community, with a main mirror diameter of 6.5 meters and composed of 18 foldable mirrors. Behind each mirror are 4 electric motors to adjust the lens position and angle.
The Weber Space Telescope
The Weber Space Telescope is currently on its way to Lagrange L2 and has made more than 87 percent of the way. Its main mirror is fully open and flattening is in progress, a process that can take up to 3 months. This is because these lenses are very precise, the polish reaches the nanometer level, the amplitude of each movement cannot be greater than 10 nanometers, and the distance can only be moved by 1 mm per day!
It is because of these complex designs that the Weber telescope is called the most powerful telescope in the history of astronomy, the telescope that can see about 200 million years ago, that is, about 13.6 billion light-years away!
Journey progress through the Weber Space Telescope
Although the Webb Space Telescope is so powerful, it is not the most powerful optical telescope ever built by humans, and some people say that the Webb Telescope is a civilian project decentralized by EECS (Enhanced DevelopmentAl Crystal System) technology. Like the hubble space telescope that was very popular at that time, it is actually just a lens that is not used for backup of the keyhole series satellite KH-11.
The EECS project is the flagship detective project in the United States, the highest priority detective satellite project, mainly used to obtain high-resolution large-scale wide-spectrum multispectral imaging, and even to take pictures at night, the purpose of which does not need to be understood by everyone.
Launch of the NROL-71 satellite
The so-called enhanced imaging refers to multispectral imaging, and the development of enhanced (imaging) systems may refer to hyperspectral and larger widths, the 2019 US US US Delta IV heavy launch vehicle launch of the NROL-71 satellite, is a typical of enhanced development crystal systems, or this is the strongest space optical telescope at present.
However, because this telescope is extremely mysterious, the outside world can not find a picture of it, not even the approximate shape! And similar to this kind of powerful telescope, the United States also has several models, such as KH-9 ~ KH14, NROL-65, etc., are no photo.
Approximate outline of NROL-17
According to the aperture and distance, the resolution of the optical telescope can be deduced, for example, in a low Earth orbit of 265 kilometers, the resolution of 6 meters diameter is about 0.05 meters, and the diameter of 9 meters can reach 0.03 meters. The Us literature has previously discussed the 0.05-meter resolution system, so the diameter of the main mirror of the NROL-71 satellite is likely to be about 6 meters, which is about the same diameter as the Webb Space Telescope.
It can be seen that the technology of the Weber Space Telescope is most likely from the decentralization of NROL-71 technology. In addition, NROL-71 also integrates the design ideas of Origin, LUVOIR-B, TPF-C, HabEx and other NASA advanced space optical telescope programs, basically achieving the ultimate in all aspects.
Weber's successor, LUVOIR
Noprose Groman once said that the complexity of the Webb Space Telescope is not in the top five of their satellite program! Noprose Groman is a U.S. military giant, involved in the field of aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines, radar, satellites, etc., of which the famous B-2 stealth bomber is from its hand.
In addition to space telescopes, humans have also built many larger and stronger optical telescopes on Earth, such as the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), which is currently under construction, with an aperture of 39.8 meters. The construction of a 30-meter-diameter telescope (TMT) in Mount Monakya, Hawaii, USA, china is still involved, but unfortunately, because of the opposition of the indigenous people, the project was postponed.
A 39.3-meter diameter telescope is being built
The Webb Space Telescope is undoubtedly powerful and will allow humanity to learn more about the universe, but it is only one of the strongest optical telescopes made by humans.