Posted on 05/04/2018 1:46:23 PM PDT by Red Badger
The James Webb Space Telescope hits another snag.
On anything that moves, from vehicles to rolling office chairs, you need to be wary of bolts rattling loose over time. Thread-locking fluids and tapes are a great way to make sure your suspect bolts stay where they should, and nyloc nuts can also keep components snug and secure.
Northrop Grumman might need to look into something along these lines, because apparently "screws and washers" are falling off the spacecraft and sunshield it is building to carry NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. Space News reports that NASA's JWST program director, Greg Robinson, said that hardware was found underneath the spacecraft element of JWST (everything but the mirror and instruments) after it was moved from an acoustic testing chamber to a vibration testing chamber.
“Right now we believe that all of this hardware—we’re talking screws and washers here—come from the sunshield cover,” Robinson said today at the National Academies’ Space Studies Board in Washington D.C., according to Space News. “We’re looking at what this really means and what is the recovery plan.”
It's probably a good thing the falling screws and washers were discovered before the spacecraft went into the vibration testing chamber. “It’s not terrible news, but it’s not good news, either,” Robinson continued. The JWST program director reiterated that issues like this are why NASA and its partners do extensive testing on new spacecraft before launch.
The issue was only just discovered, and NASA and Northrop Grumman are determining the best way to move forward. NASA recently announced that tears in the sunshield and leaks in the thruster valves of JWST's spacecraft element were likely to delay the $8-plus-billion space telescope's launch to May 2020 from spring 2019 (already delayed from 2018).
In response to the troubling findings, NASA has initiated an independent review of JWST launch readiness led by former NASA Goddard director Tom Young, which is expected to be completed by the end of the month. Additionally, the national space agency has sent more personnel to Northrop Grumman's facility in Redondo Beach, California—where the JWST optical telescope element is being mated to the spacecraft element—to oversee the work.
"I still believe we’ll go in 2020," Robinson said at the Space Studies Board, though he admitted the loose screws and washers could reveal a problem that "takes longer than we expect.”
Space scientists from astrobiologists to atmospheric scientists to cosmologists are chomping at the bit to switch on James Webb and turn the biggest space telescope ever built out to the firmament. Maybe someone can send Northrop a little Loctite.
Source: Space News
How does it hold up in vacuum when heated to 250F and then quickly cooled to -250F? It doesn’t.
Well genius, check the temperature specs of Locktight in a vacuum. It doesn’t work.
Ah, someone who knows! This is good to see.
I’m sure they’re working on it..................
Yeah but in space, everything is a foreign object.
Heat a nut/bolt to +250F and the rapidly cool to -250F in a vacuum. Repeat a few million times. Any notable affect?
How to those adhesives work in a vacuum when temperatures range quickly from -250F to +250F? They don’t. You need to attend a class in aerospace materials.
650°F
http://www.ce.com.vn/loctite-2620-ultra-high-temperature/
LOL - “If women don’t find you handsome . . . “
You left out the OTHER END: Optimum temperature range is range -65ºF to 650ºF. Space vehicles must handle down to -250F in a vacuum with the temperatures rapidly changing from the high end to the low end. Most plastics, of which LockTite is a member, out gas in a vacuum until they are all gone.
Loctite on a heat shield? Seriously?
The important issue is whether the muslins feel good about this project.
Yeah, screws and washers ... but where are the nuts?
In DC.......................
Where are they getting their fasteners? Harbor Freight?
My, my, my - aren’t we sensitive. Do you work on the project?
Come on, I wasn’t being serious. If it was really as simple as putting on some Loctite (or some other easily available and cheap adhesive), doubtless that would have been done. This is known in English as a “joke,” which is usually appreciated by people who have something known as a “sense of humor.”
Big lots..................
See #37.
This may be of interest to you: LockTite Qualifications for Space
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