© 2022. Forbes Argentina.All rights reserved.This week, the James Webb Telescope surprised humanity with several high-resolution images of space.Stars, nebulae and galaxies could be seen with a clarity never before achieved.However, after the initial astonishment, a question arose among the curious: what else can be done with this technology that cost US$ 10 billion?"Already for the fact of designing and building it, like any other cutting-edge project in the space field, the James Webb telescope generated many new technologies that are useful for other industries," explains Tomás Burroni, who completed the Specialty in Space Systems Engineering at the National University of San Martín, to Forbes Argentina."They're like spinoffs," he adds.For Burroni, "the one with the greatest impact is possibly medicine."“They developed devices to improve diagnoses of eye problems.High-speed optical sensors are also mentioned, which can improve technologies in many industries: laser communication, medical imaging equipment, experiments in basic sciences, etc ”, he indicates to this medium.Along these lines, from NASA they point out that “the optical measurement technology developed for Webb, called 'wavefront detection', has been applied to the measurement of the human eye and has allowed significant improvements”."The Webb telescope program has enabled a number of improvements in human eye measurement, eye disease diagnosis and potentially improved surgery," said Dan Neal, Director of Research and Development for Abbott Medical Optics Inc. in Albuquerque, New Mexico.And he added: "Webb's improvements have allowed ophthalmologists to obtain much more detailed information about the shape and 'topography' of the eye in seconds instead of hours."NASA experts also highlight that "the optics industry has benefited from a new sewing technique that is an improved method for measuring large spheres."“A sphere is a lens whose surface profiles are not portions of a sphere or cylinder.In photography, a lens assembly that includes an aspherical element is often called an aspherical lens.Stitching is a method of combining several measurements of a surface into a single measurement by digitally combining the data as if it had been 'stitched'”, they say.Because NASA relies on the manufacture and testing of large, high-quality aspherical (non-spherical) optics for applications such as the James Webb Space Telescope, an improved method of measuring large spheres was sought.During the process, the company QED Technologies updated and improved its sewing technology.QED developed an innovative tool called the aspherical seam interferometer.The equipment is applied to advanced optics in telescopes, microscopes, cameras, medical viewers, binoculars and photolithography”, they comment from the institution.In the aerospace and astronomy industries, the Webb program awarded 4D Technology its first commercial contract to develop the PhaseCam interferometer system, which measures the quality of Webb telescope mirror segments in a cryogenic vacuum environment.This is a new way of using interferometers in the aerospace sector.An interferometer is a device that separates a beam of light into two beams, usually by reflection, and then joins them together to produce interference, which is used to measure wavelength, refractive index, and also distances.Interferometry involves the collection of electromagnetic radiation using two or more collectors separated by a certain distance to produce a sharper image than each telescope could achieve separately.The PhaseCam interferometer verified that the surfaces of the Webb telescope's mirror segments are as perfect as possible, and that they will stay that way in the cold vacuum of space.To test the Webb mirror segments, they were placed in a "cryovac" environment, where a vacuum pump draws the air out and temperatures drop to the extreme cold of deep space that the spacecraft will experience.“A new dynamic interferometric technique with very short exposures that are not smeared with vibration was necessary to make these measurements with the required precision, particularly in the high-vibration environment caused by vacuum chamber pumps,” say specialists from the institution.The interferometer resulting from this partnership with NASA can be used to evaluate future mirrors that need to be tested in vacuum chambers where vibration is an issue.“The mission of the telescope itself is more scientific, that is, it does not have as direct an impact as telecommunications or observing the earth, but it will generate an infinity of data that we could only imagine before to feed our knowledge of physics and astronomy. ”, reflects Burroni."I consider this a benefit for humanity because eventually that knowledge somehow reaches new technologies and improves living standards," he continues to conclude.Terms and conditions |Legal |© 2022. Forbes Argentina.All rights reserved.