NASA’s so-called James Webb telescope was hit by several micrometeorites in space and severely damaged. The damage to the mirror was already known in June. Now, however, NASA has admitted that a complete repair is impossible. This is reported by the magazine t3n, citing one internal report of the space agency.
The telescope has been in development for decades and will be launched in late 2021 at an estimated cost of over $8 billion to build. The telescope, located more than a million kilometers from Earth, will collect data and photos.
James Webb Telescope: Damage can no longer be repaired
Now the sad news: This is damage that can no longer be repaired. NASA has no other option than to algorithmically correct the image data, which is poorer due to the damaged optics.
The report states: “The single micrometeorite impact, which occurred between May 22 and 24, 2022, exceeded the pre-launch expected level of damage for a single micrometeorite, prompting further investigation and modeling by the JWST project.”
Because a constructive correction is obviously not possible, the ground team is now considering other measures to mitigate future micrometeorite impacts. So you want to try to keep the James Webb telescope away from future impacts.