Science and Engineering of James Webb Space Telescope
Speaker: Dr. Mansoor Ahmed, Scientist Emeritus; NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre, Astrophysics Project Division.
James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was launched into orbit on December 25, 2021, after a few decades of mind-boggling engineering and technological achievements. JWST is now well on its way to its destination with all the critical engineering milestones successfully achieved.
JWST is expected to achieve equally mind-boggling scientific discoveries once it reaches its destination at the earth-sun Lagrange point # 2 (L2) and starts producing science.
In this talk, Mansoor will give an overview of the science goals of this great observatory, discussing how it will complement the already great discoveries achieved by Hubble Space Telescope and how JWST will extend boundaries of knowledge about our universe.
JWST science objectives have imposed extreme technical and engineering challenges in developing this complicated machine. Mansoor will also discuss how the science objectives drove the engineering requirements and how NASA meet the challenge.
Introduction of Mansoor Ahmed
Mansoor is currently serving as Scientist Emeritus at NASA. Previously he served as Associate Director of the Astrophysics Projects Division as well as the Program Manager for the Physics of the Cosmos program and the Cosmic Origins program at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
Mansoor has spent most of his career in serving the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) program in different capacities, including the Flight Operations Manager and the Project Manager for HST operations. He has participated in all but one Hubble repair missions. During a short stint away from HST, Mansoor has served as the Mission Manager for the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory De-Orbit mission, the Deputy Project Manager for the James Web Space Telescope and as the Project Manager for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission, a collaborative endeavor between NASA and the European Space Agency with the goal to verify Einstein’s theory of relativity by detecting gravitational waves generated by massive objects in our universe, as predicted by Einstein.
Mansoor commonly known as Moonie grew up in Peshawar and studied in PAF College Lower Topa before migrating to the US in 1970. He has a B.S degree from University of Maryland and M.S. from George Washington University, both in mechanical engineering. He has received the NASA Group Achievement Award, 2001; the Goddard Space Flight Center Group Achievement Award, 1995; and the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, 1995. Mansoor has been a member of the US government Senior Executive Service (SES) in 2007.
Another good thing about him besides his scientific endeavors he loves to direct movies. He has one movie named BHOOL and 20 short movies up till now. Most of the films have been showcased in local film festival; two of them have received audience choice award for best short films.