Ball Aerospace, NASA Finalize Primary Instrument for Roman Space Telescope
The project being worked on by Ball Aerospace and NASA, which is aimed at fielding the primary instrument for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, has reached a major milestone. The collaborators have now completed the design, integration, and testing phases of the telescope’s primary instrument, named the Wide Field Instrument (WFI).
The Roman Space Telescope, named after NASA’s first chief astronomer, is set to be NASA’s premier observatory of the 2030s. The mission aims to study dark energy, dark matter, exoplanets, and infrared astrophysics. The Wide Field Instrument is crucial to this mission, occupying a primary role as the telescope’s main scientific instrument.
Functioning as a high-resolution, infrared survey telescope, the WFI will be able to survey large swathes of the sky in a comparatively shorter time than previous instruments. The recently concluded design, integration, and testing process stands as a critical demonstration of the collaborative strength of Ball Aerospace and NASA.
Ball Aerospace’s Vice President and General Manager for Civil Space, Dr. Makenzie Lystrup, expressed satisfaction with the progress so far and showed optimism for the future. She stated that successfully completing the WFI is central to the complex mission that the Roman Space Telescope sets out to accomplish.
Ball Aerospace has over six decades of expertise in civil space operations. The company continually partners with stakeholders, including NASA, to provide integrated services and solutions in satellite systems, spacecraft, data exploitation systems and RF, among others.
