NASA says Webb’s excess fuel likely to extend its lifetime expectations

Re:NASA says Webb’s excess fuel likely to extend its lifetim... by carl_dr on Tuesday January 11, 2022 @11:54AM (#29894047)

JWST isn’t in Earth’s shadow - it orbits around L2 (approximately perpendicular to the Sun-Earth axis) at a radius comparable to the Earth-Moon distance. JWST has a huge solar array used to power the electronics on-board.

Even if it was stationary at L2, Earth wouldn’t completely shield it from the Sun - the point is too far from Earth/the Sun so large for it to.

There is a nice animation on https://webb.nasa.gov/content/about/orbit.html

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Re:NASA says Webb’s excess fuel likely to extend its lifetim... by me_me_me on Tuesday January 11, 2022 @01:14PM (#29895316)

You are absolutely correct, it even has a massive sun-shield for that :D

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