Plenary sessions from SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation 2018.

SPIE presentations cover the latest research and promising breakthroughs in astronomy.

21 June 2018

*Video presentation included.

*An Engineering History of the JWST Telescope

Lee Feinberg, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Ctr. (USA)
Lee Feinberg
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (USA)

Look back in time at the amazing history of the telescope development including technology, architecture, design, manufacturing, and integration and testing phases.


*Future Science with the James Webb Space Telescope

John Mather, NASA Goddard Space Flight Ctr. (USA)
John Mather
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (USA)

JWST will extend the discoveries of the Hubble and Spitzer observatories in all areas from cosmology, galaxies, stars, and exoplanets to our own Solar System.


NICER Early Operations and Results

Keith Gendreau, NASA Goddard Space Flight Ctr. (USA)
Keith Gendreau
Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) (USA)

The mission focus of NICER is to understand ultra-dense matter through X-ray timing of neutron stars.



*The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope: Construction Progress and Scientific Opportunities

Beth Willman, Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) (USA)
Beth Willman
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (USA)

The mission of the LSST is to meet a broad range of science goals with a single 10-year, time-domain survey.



*Future Capabilities in Space Servicing and Assembly: Opportunities for the Most Ambitious Space Astrophysics Missions

Harley Thronson, NASA GSFC (USA)
Harley Thronson
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (USA)

Concepts for the largest future space observatories have reached the limit of the most capable launch vehicles likely to be available over the next two decades.




Sabrina Stierwalt: How to Diversify Engineering (and Why We Should)

Sabrina Stierwalt, Caltech (USA)
Sabrina Stierwalt
Caltech (USA)

The inclusion of women and other minorities in technical fields has also proven to be crucial to innovation, talent recruitment, profits, and global competitiveness.



*Sara Seager: Mapping the Nearest Stars for Habitable Worlds

Sara Seagar, MIT (USA)
Sara Seager
MIT (USA)

The ambitious goal of identifying a habitable or inhabited world is within reach.

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