Maybe they should have given Webb a fair trial before hanging it?

Such as first launching a cheap dummy satellite which would have hung around at the same location. Which would have done nothing except count the number of strikes. They didn't and now the number of strikes so far is higher than anticipated. But it's early days...

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/3566782-webb-telescope-suffered-uncorrectable-damage-in-micrometeoroid-hit-nasa-report-says/

 

 

 

It's definitely troubling that a significant strike occurred so early on - odds are there will be more - and unlike Hubble, a repair is not an option. But that's all part of the risk of exploration and doing something new. I'm personally amazed we've gotten this far with the mission, given everything else that could have gone wrong.

Launching a dummy satellite of approximately the same size and materials as Webb as a test would probably cost almost as much as launching the real thing - given the fuel, propulsion systems, and guidance hardware required to get any object to a geo-synchronous solar orbit. Might have been better to build two actual satellites and put both in orbit for redundancy.

Even if it blew up tomorrow though, it's still an amazing accomplishment, and in all likelihood - we are going to get several years worth of new discoveries out of it before it's ultimate demise.

On 7/21/2022 at 10:14 PM, enright said:

Launching a dummy satellite of approximately the same size and materials as Webb as a test would probably cost almost as much as launching the real thing - given the fuel, propulsion systems, and guidance hardware required to get any object to a geo-synchronous solar orbit. Might have been better to build two actual satellites and put both in orbit for redundancy.

 

Precisely. Cost implications would be unacceptable for just a micrometeorite test bed and they did to modelling before launch to estimate the frequency of impacts and consequences. 

 

Quote

 

Despite this, Webb’s team has determined the overall impact on the telescope is small. Engineers were able to realign Webb’s segments to adjust for the micrometeoroid’s damage.

 Webb has been hit by at least six micrometeoroids since its December launch, equal to roughly one impact per month, matching expectations, according to their report. The damage to C3, however, has engineers investigating whether the impact was rare, meaning it could happen once every few years, or if Webb is “more susceptible to damage by micrometeoroids than pre-launch modeling predicted.”

They are now working to determine how other micrometeoroids could impact Webb’s mirrors, how many of these asteroid fragments there are, and whether the telescope should be adjusted to spend less time pointing toward orbital motion, where it may be at greater risk of being struck by a micrometeoroid.

 

 

Looks like there's a good chance it was a rare collision in terms of impact and they might simply be bale to make adjustments regarding how long it points in the potentially risky direction if the analysis tells them nasty collisions are more likely than they thought. 

Edited July 23, 20223 yr by martin-w

Another 20 years of expected life? That's not totally a catastrophe then...