Images of the FGS
Caption: Webb Telescope's Fine Guidance Sensor Gets Lots of Guidance
It takes a lot of guidance to correctly move flight instruments. Critical lift operations involving flight instruments require patience, precision, and many pairs of eyes. This photo shows a number of them who are all involved in the operations of the Fine Guidance Sensor/Near InfraRed Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (FGS/NIRISS).
Included in the photo taken in the giant cleanroom at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. are engineering technicians, a rigger, a crane operator, a safety engineer, international partners, a task coordinator, and a lead engineer.
The FGS is the device that will provide exquisite pointing and guiding control of the observatory for all of Webb's science instruments. The NIRISS will assist in detecting the universe's first light, and detect and characterize exoplanets and their movement across (transit) stars. The FGS/NIRISS is the Canadian Space Agency's contribution to the Webb mission, and it arrived at NASA Goddard on July 30, 2012.
Credit: NASA Goddard/Chris Gunn
