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Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s Deployable Aperture Cover Completes Key Testing Phase

Engineers have reached a significant milestone in the development of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope as they recently completed several environmental tests for its Deployable Aperture Cover. This critical component serves as a shield against unwanted light entering the telescope’s barrel and is essential for its observational capabilities. After flying through a thorough set of simulations that mimic the harsh conditions of space and launch, the cover has demonstrated its readiness for the next stages of integration.

The Deployable Aperture Cover, designed and constructed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, features an innovative two-layer structure made up of enhanced thermal blankets. This design contrasts with the older hard aperture covers used on telescopes like the Hubble Space Telescope. During launch, the cover will remain in a folded position and will deploy automatically after the Roman Space Telescope is in orbit, utilizing three support booms that spring into position via an electronic trigger.

According to Matthew Neuman, a mechanical engineer involving the cover’s development, testing is crucial for such a soft deployable structure. “Modeling its behavior accurately is a challenge; we rely heavily on testing to confirm functionality,” he stated. Successfully passing the initial tests is an encouraging sign for the project’s progression.

In a pivotal environmental test, the Deployable Aperture Cover underwent extreme conditions within NASA’s Space Environment Simulator. In this expansive chamber, engineers recreated the vacuum of space and exposed the cover to a variety of temperatures. The sunshade was strategically positioned near heating elements designed to replicate the solar environment that it will encounter while in space.

Operating temperatures in space are anticipated to hit minus 67 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 55 degrees Celsius). However, engineers pushed the boundaries further during testing, cooling the cover down to minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 70 degrees Celsius) to ensure resilience in more extreme conditions. The deployment was monitored closely through various sensors and cameras. Over approximately one minute, the successful unfolding of the cover confirmed its robustness.

Brian Simpson, the project design lead for the Deployable Aperture Cover, noted the anxiety surrounding this testing phase. “This was probably the environmental test we were most nervous about,” Simpson remarked, emphasizing the potential issues with material freeze that could prevent the cover from deploying correctly. Such a malfunction could severely compromise the telescope’s observational capabilities.

Following the thermal vacuum assessments, the Deployable Aperture Cover underwent rigorous acoustic testing to simulate the intense sounds experienced during launch. This crucial testing phase took place in one of Goddard’s specialized acoustic chambers, which houses large speakers to generate high decibel levels. The sunshade was subjected to noise levels reaching up to 138 decibels, similar to being near a jet engine during takeoff, providing engineers with critical data on the cover’s performance under such conditions.