Roman Space Telescope Has Enough Fuel for 22 Years, Double What NASA Planned
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SPACE
Roman Space Telescope Has Enough Fuel for 22 Years, Double What NASA Planned
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has enough propellant on board to operate for 22 years, which is double the agency's original 11-year mission planning estimate. For a telescope that has not yet started its primary science mission, that is an extraordinary amount of runway, and it significantly expands what astronomers might be able to accomplish with one of the most capable space observatories ever launched.
Key Takeaways
- The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has 22 years of propellant on board, double NASA's planned 11-year mission estimate
- Roman has a field of view 100 times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope's infrared instrument
- It is the first NASA observatory specifically designed for in-space refuelling
- Primary science goals include mapping dark energy, discovering exoplanets via gravitational microlensing, and surveying infrared galaxies
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