Inching from Earth to its final destination 1.5 million miles away, NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has decided it wants to live. He has enjoyed his brief existence and wants more of it. Just launched on August 30, NASA now reports that Roman has already doubled its expected lifespan. The space telescope, an engineering triumph aimed at discovering billions (yes, billions) of new galaxies, is now expected to last about 22 years instead of the original 10. The ground team that Roman controlled did so in a very innovative way: by being good at their job. You see, after being launched into space by a SpaceX Falcon Heavy, Roman had to do some of his own burning to get on track to Earth’s Lagrange Point 2 (L2). This is an area where orbital centrifugal forces exactly counteract gravitational forces, allowing Roman to “park” there in a fuel-efficient manner for his mission. Conducting a burn is a complicated process and doesn’t always go smoothly, so when NASA planned the trip and budgeted for fuel, it was prepared for things to go a little wrong. But sometimes in life you just make it. The space agency has now confirmed that its burn was so successful that it used less than 10% of its fuel budget to achieve the trajectory, or just 40 pounds of its 441-pound budget. That fuel savings is enough for four more full years of science. And the best part is that it’s not even the best part. Cascading (complementary) consequences Have you ever done something so well that other things start to go better because of it? In Roman’s case, multiple burns would always have to be performed to get the space telescope to its designated scientific position at L2. But now that NASA has conducted its first burn, the second scheduled burn won’t have to be very large at all. In fact, it will be much smaller than expected. And after that, the final maneuvers to “park” Roman will also be smaller than planned. Add up all those fuel savings and you get four extra years of useful life. Not amazing enough for you? Don’t worry, NASA has had an ace up its sleeve the entire time. Not content with simply being ahead of schedule and under budget, Roman was also underweight. You may be proud of how much you sweated in the gym, but Roman managed to lose around 4,000 pounds simply because he was designed better than originally planned. The original plan had Roman’s fuel tank only partially full due to weight issues; The sleek summer body of the final product meant the agency was free to fill the tank to the brim. That’s another four more years of science, for a total of 12 additional years on top of the 10 allotted. Now I become Roman, the discoverer of worlds. So, with 22 years of fuel to keep him nice and comfortable in L2, what will Roman be doing? While the neighboring James Webb Space Telescope is designed to take ultra-high-resolution photographs of known objects, Roman is intended to take very wide photographs that can discover new and previously unknown galaxies, worlds, and possibly phenomena that we don’t even know exist yet. This is similar to the legendary Hubble mission, but, once again, Roman is simply better. Its Wide Field Instrument (WFI) will take photographs 200 times larger than Hubble’s; It is expected to capture more sky in five years than Hubble did in 30. Fifty times more sky. Good news on this front: NASA just turned on WFI without problems. This is a bit of a complicated process, as the agency has to activate heaters in the spacecraft to evaporate any water or chemicals still on the detectors. The heaters brought the detectors to 85 degrees Fahrenheit; beautiful! NASA then lowered the temperature, slightly, to minus 225 degrees Fahrenheit. The WFI was turned on here and, with all systems green, cooled to its natural temperature of -300 degrees Fahrenheit. The first images should return to Earth once Roman reaches L2, later this year or early next year. After that, they should spend at least 22 years learning more about the universe at a faster rate than humanity has ever done before. It’s good to be good at your job. Roman and his team are the best.
