Going back to Ancient Mesopotamian pre-astronomy and the influence of ancient god worship, then jumping to the present successful images received from the NGST...the Next Generation Space Telescope. Some history about this new space telescope, some of the materials used to create the mirrors of the telescope and looking at some NASA research continuing that enables us to understand what to be prepared for in our future.
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RESOURCES:
HEILBRUNN TIMELINE OF ART HISTORY
https://www.metmuseum.org/toah
Ninurta
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bau-Mesopotamian-deity
Babylonian Astronomy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonian_astrology#cite_note-21
About the Iranian Calendar
Astrology & Astronomy in Iran and Ancient Mesopotamia
By: Massoume Price, December 2001
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were identified by ancient Babylonian astronomers in the 2nd millennium BC.[7 (from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_discovery_of_Solar_System_planets_and_their_moons#cite_note-Sachs_1974-7
Enki - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enki
Babylonian astronomers tracked Jupiter
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aad8085
Prehistoric Europe
Main article: Archaeoastronomy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_astronomy#Prehistoric_Europe
What is Mesolithic?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesolithic
The Senior Project Scientist for the NGST is Dr. John C Mather, an American astrophysicist & cosmologist. https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/content/meetTheTeam/people/mather.html
History: https://esahubble.org/news/heic9901/
Riccardo Giacconi, first director (1981) of STSci. See history: https://www.stsci.edu/who-we-are/our-history
Giacconi suggested the followup to the Hubble space telescope…
Early days & originators: (Pierre Bely, Peter Stockman)
https://www.ucolick.org/~gdi/docs/NGST_The_Early_Days_of_JWST.pdf
U of Ca. https://www.ucobservatories.org/
Mission timeline: https://webbtelescope.org/webb-science/the-observatory/mission-timeline#:~:text=Engineers%20and%20astronomers%20innovated%20new,on%20Webb%20began%20in%202004.
NASA announced in September 2021 that they would not rename the mission, Space.com reported.
https://www.livescience.com/james-webb-space-telescope
Google search for “james webb, sexist, racist”
https://daily.jstor.org/the-lavender-scare/
Who was James Webb? Why do scientists want to rename the James Webb Space Telescope?
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/james-webb-why-scientists-want-180219337.html?guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAGHBpYHyUarkWAqTj3ShX9XThjfw8SEXHp85cwXcji-0vEKUxWrhoEetFA_rPBrPmzukPoIFshZHVWUTEHh6_9uJwIPomO39Hl-b6KMreX_YreiKl-5UMl6ezHtnmh6b9_-66HeykQqzUL110zkF4O-K8S13f5EpwObijgRdgdjj
People who could not become astronomers.
The Firing of Clifford Norton
Many astronomers feel that the telescope should be renamed the Harriet Tubbman telescope, in honor of a black woman who used the stars to navigate the way to freedom for many former black slaves who were escaping capture and persisting in their goal of finding freedom from persecution, prejudice and its associated evils.
People who were removed from their positions as astronomers (as state dept people were removed during the Lavender Scare)
People who research history of space science/travel, etc., but who are not listened to by NASA
The primary user group of this telescope is AAS American Astronomical Society. They were not consulted on the naming of the telescope
Letter from President of AAS, Paula Szkody to Bill Nelson, NASA Administrator
https://aas.org/sites/default/files/2022-04/AAS_letter_to_Nelson_JWST%20%281%29.pdf
As this telescope
…and they object to the naming of the telescope after a Cold Warrior with a connection to actions which led to many non-binary people losing their positions and worse, committing suicide in some cases.
Launch Streamed live on Dec 25, 2021
This mission launched at 7:20 a.m. EST (12:20 UTC), Dec. 25, 2021, aboard an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. (YT stream https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nT7JGZMbtM
Updates: https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html
The James Webb Space Telescope
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/webb/about/index.html
Technologies used on the JWST, developed by ESA people.
NIRSpec stands for Near-InfraRed Spectrograph
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/NIRSpec_factsheet
MIRI, the Mid-InfraRed Instrument
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/MIRI_factsheet
Ariane 5 ECA (Evolved Cryogenic, model A) launcher
The rocket & all of the ‘launch services’
Developed by CSA people
https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/satellites/jwst/canada-role.asp
Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS) & Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS)
The telescope itself…
Ball Aerospace & Technologies is the principal optical subcontractor for the JWST project, led by prime contractor Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, under a contract from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, Maryland.[35][36] The mirrors, plus flight spares, were fabricated and polished by Ball Aerospace & Technologies based on beryllium segment blanks manufactured by several companies including Axsys, Brush Wellman, and Tinsley Laboratories.[37]
Who or what is NASA? We will explore in a future episode the history of NASA
https://www.nasa.gov/specials/60counting/begin.html
Mining the beryllium used for the mirrors
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/148574/digging-beryllium-for-james-webb#:~:text=The%20beryllium%20used%20in%20JWST,area%20on%20July%208%2C%202021.
OSHA webpage on beryllium
U of Arizona mining &...https://miningsh.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/documents/Beryllium%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf
Luckily, it seems the mining of the beryllium seems to produce less lethal concentrations of the element than in other industries where it is processed. https://www.msha.gov/sites/default/files/Alerts%20and%20Hazards/HH%20Cards/HH-32%20Beryllium%20Hazards.pdf
Where does it come from?https://beryllium.com/about-beryllium/sources-of-beryllium
It seems that Materion, the main producers of beryllium in the USA got the message about inclusion and fairness in the workplace, if their website truly represents the situation ‘on the ground’. This is really important, since there are very few sources for this incredibly important element!
However, looking over Indeed comments, “...No advancement for females
Mill Hand (Current Employee) - Shoemakersville, PA - September 18, 2018
Its already hard for women in a man's world. This place will not look at abilities. The "good old boys club" thing really does exist. And incompetantcy is heralded over a solid work ethic…”
The overall reviews on Indeed show that women have much poorer opinion of their experience working for this company than men do. Not surprising since only 25% of the workforce there is female.
1.2 Personal Development
2.1 Career Opportunities
2.4 Family Support
On the whole, Materion gets a solid mediocre, or you might say, middle of the road review from the averaged reviews submitted by employees of the company. You can check out the latest reviews from employees on Indeed https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Materion/reviews?start=80
Usw Pro Act https://www.usw.org/blog/2020/silencing-corporate-bulliesa
Unfortunately, though Materion is one of a very small number of companies providing the space and other industries (mobile phones, etc.) with beryllium, only about half of their employees seem to recommend the experience, and I haven’t found any evidence of successful unionization, which usually results in better salaries and benefits for employees of unionized companies, which of course helps their families and/or children and significant others to live healthy, successful lives.
Follow Tereza Pultarova on Twitter @TerezaPultarova. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
https://www.space.com/rocket-launches-damage-ozone-climate
image art courtesy of Ball Aerospace