The Webb Space Telescope mission is threatened—not by anything in the desolate outskirts of the Sun, but by potential budget cuts.
NASA’s latest request for the telescope’s future budget would cut the mission’s operational budget by 20%, according to Tom Brown, head of the Webb Telescope mission office at the Space Telescope Science Institute.
The Webb Space Telescope began scientific operations in July 2021.
In the last solicitation for proposals alone, the Space Telescope Science Institute Webb mission team received 2,377 proposals for time with the telescope.
Demand for the telescope’s time is a measure of its importance to science, one that does not grok with the shrunken budget proposal.
Potential budget cuts pose a threat to the Webb Space Telescope mission, not anything in the barren outer reaches of the Sun.
Reduced funding for the telescope’s operation could endanger the rate and quality of the mission’s outputs, but astronomers say Webb is performing better than anticipated. According to SpaceNews, the mission’s effectiveness may be diminished as early as fall 2025 due to the funding shortage.
Tom Brown, who leads the Webb Telescope mission office at the Space Telescope Science Institute, said that NASA’s most recent proposal for the telescope’s future budget would reduce the mission’s operating budget by 20%.
Beginning in July 2021, the Webb Space Telescope conducted scientific missions. Unlike the 35-year-old Hubble Space Telescope, which captures images from ultraviolet to near-infrared wavelengths, Webb takes pictures of the universe at infrared and near-infrared wavelengths. By imaging the oldest light that can be detected, Webb enables the telescope to view individual stars and galaxies from the early universe.
Webb is limited to observing one object at a time, and the telescope has a finite amount of observing time. Time on the telescope is oversubscribed by a ratio of 9:1, which means that almost ten times as many scientists want time on the telescope as can be provided, Brown told Gizmodo.
In 2011, Brown’s presentation at a town hall stated that Webb’s operating expenses were set “idealistically low.”. Even with flat top-level funding, Webb still faces a budget shortfall due to higher-than-expected inflation and less budget flexibility in NASA.
According to Brown’s email to Gizmodo, “the impact would cut across all aspects of operations if the budget reductions went into effect.”. The proposed cuts to Webb’s budget would have an impact on a wide range of activities, including public outreach, data calibration and analysis, scheduling and planning of observations, solicitation and peer review of programs, and more.
Brown continued, “These cuts would reduce the amount of observing time available by decreasing the observatory’s efficiency and slowing its response to anomalies.”. “The cuts would reduce the cadence and fidelity of instrument calibration, support for the four scientific instruments’ observing modes, and even the number of instrument modes available for science, diminishing the mission’s scientific impact and productivity.”. “.”.
In December 2020, Webb performed an unexpectedly flawless launch, using less fuel than anticipated to get the telescope into orbit. Because of the saved fuel, the mission’s lifespan will be longer than scientists had anticipated, possibly reaching 20 years instead of the minimum five-year baseline.
Scientists must make the most of their time with Webb because the telescope won’t last forever. The Webb mission team at the Space Telescope Science Institute received 2,377 proposals for time with the telescope in the most recent solicitation for proposals alone. The telescope’s scientific value is gauged by demand for its time, which is not compatible with the proposed budget cut. NASA must come up with a practical solution or their flagship mission of the decade will be performing poorly just two years into its (possibly) two-decade lifespan.