File:Webb Telescope's FGS Pointing is "Out of the Box" (7735202720).jpg

The technology developed to create NASA's Fine Guidance Sensor/Near InfraRed Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (FGS/NIRISS) instrument required a some "out of the box" thinking.

Some "out of the box" ingenuity was needed to create an instrument that would take the Webb telescope past current technology. The FGS is new technology that will help point the telescope. The new thing about FGS is how it guides using precision centroiding (to find the exact point), and how it interacts with the fine steering mirror to precisely point.

The NIRISS will "assist" in detecting the universe’s first light, and detect and characterize exoplanets and their movement across (transit) stars.

This photograph, showing another kind of box was taken in the giant clean room at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The copper-colored flight electronics box, seen in the foreground, is hooked up to the FGS/NIRISS. The flight electronics box is providing data handling and commands to the instrument. The FGS is covered in the background by a silver-colored cover.

The Canadian Space Agency's contribution to the Webb mission, the FGS/NIRISS arrived at NASA Goddard on July 30, 2012. The FGS/NIRISS is the second instrument to arrive at NASA Goddard that will fly aboard the James Webb Space Telescope. The Fine Guidance Sensor will enable the telescope to accurately and precisely point at the correct, intended objects for it to observe.

For more information about the James Webb Space Telescope, visit: <a href="http://www.jwst.nasa.gov" rel="nofollow">www.jwst.nasa.gov</a>

Photo Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn

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