NASA is targeting August 30 to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Florida. The roughly $4 billion observatory will map two billion galaxies in an ambitious quest to uncover the fundamental nature of dark energy and dark matter.
NASA is preparing to send its next flagship space observatory into orbit from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with liftoff set for no earlier than 7:26 a.m. EDT on Sunday, August 30. Named after NASA’s first chief astronomer, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope aims to answer some of modern physics’ most pressing questions. The mission arrives roughly nine months ahead of its original schedule.
Unprecedented Survey Speed and the Search for Dark Energy
The observatory’s central scientific mission focuses on unraveling cosmic expansion. While ordinary matter makes up only about five percent of the universe and dark matter accounts for roughly 27 percent, invisible dark energy represents about 68 percent of the cosmos (according to Itnews). Scientists know that the universe has been expanding since the Big Bang roughly 13.8 billion years ago, and 1998 data revealed that this expansion is actually accelerating.
“The key questions are: Is dark energy simply a property of empty space that remains constant over time, or does it evolve in time?”
Mustapha Ishak, University of Texas at Dallas cosmologist, via Itnews
To tackle these questions, Roman pairs a massive field of view with rapid survey speeds. Ohio State News noted that the telescope’s surveying capabilities are about 1,000 times faster than Hubble’s.
Engineering in Greenbelt
The telescope was assembled at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. The spacecraft will eventually travel to its workstation at Lagrange Point 2, situated about one million miles from Earth (Thenews noted the destination).
Mapping Two Billion Galaxies and Hunting Exoplanets
Beyond dark energy, the mission’s High-Latitude Wide-Area Survey will peer past the Milky Way to map about 12 percent of the sky in under two years (Ohio State News reported on faculty and student involvement). Julie McEnery, Roman’s senior project scientist at Goddard Space Flight Center, told reporters that the primary instrument combines high sensitivity with rapid survey capabilities.
“The survey will contain over two billion galaxies and enable us to study how the structures in our universe — the stars, the galaxies, the clusters of galaxies — grew and evolved. We’ll also measure how our universe has expanded over time. And these are the keys that will allow us to unlock the fundamental nature of dark matter and dark energy and the fabric of the universe itself.”
Julie McEnery, senior project scientist, via Itnews
In tandem with its galactic surveys, Ohio State News noted that researchers expect Roman to detect around 100,000 exoplanets by utilizing a planet-hunting method called microlensing alongside traditional transiting techniques. Furthermore, Yahoo reported that it will demonstrate new technology to directly image some relatively nearby exoplanets.
Launch Operations and Upcoming Timeline
Ahead of the scheduled August 30 liftoff, NASA has outlined a public media schedule at the Kennedy Space Center (NASA announced the prelaunch briefing details). The itinerary features a mission science briefing on Saturday, August 29, followed by a prelaunch news conference featuring agency officials, SpaceX representatives, and the U.S.
Following separation from the rocket, the observatory will travel to Lagrange point two (L2).
