A new spacecraft by the name of MANTIS will soon join the James Webb Space Telescope to survey the cosmos and look for exoplanets, one that would deliver more discoveries to the public soon. The University of Colorado was awarded the contract to build this $8.5 million CubeSat that would soon aid JWST in its future operations in space.
The massive James Webb telescope will get a small sidekick, with the CubeSats known for their significantly tinier sizes, replicating the dimensions of a microwave oven.
MANTIS is an $8.5M CubeSat to Aid NASA's JWST
The University of Colorado Boulder has recently announced that its project was selected by NASA and awarded $8.5 million for its development of the CubeSat known as MANTIS. This new spacecraft, the Monitoring Activity from Nearby sTars with uv Imaging and Spectroscopy (MANTIS), will soon join James Webb in its cosmic survey and more.
MANTIS is set to "observe the volatile physics of stars burning dozens of light-years from Earth, including as they eject huge bursts of energy in the form of flares," said the release.
Briana Indahl and the team over at the University of Colorado Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) are set to start on the project and have it available by 2026.
James Webb and MANTIS for Space Exploration
"We proposed MANTIS as a kind of ultraviolet sidekick that will follow JWST and look wherever it's looking, filling in this important piece of context on the stellar environments in which these planets live," said Kevin France, an associate professor at LASP and part of the MANTIS team.
According to Gizmodo, The MANTIS will complement James Webb's survey of an exoplanet, with the toaster oven-sized spacecraft supplementing more information that will aid the JWST in its quest to study exoplanets and more.
James Webb's Discovery as a Lone Explorer
There may be different satellites that are deployed in different regions of space that bring their discoveries and findings to NASA, but among the most iconic is the James Webb Space Telescope. It saw its first launch towards its resting place in space back on December 24, stowed inside Arianespace's Ariane 5 rocket which launched in the French Guiana.
Since then, Webb has given the world multiple discoveries and one of the most important images present now is the most detailed and deepest image it snapped of the universe. This image is one of the most important snaps of the telescope in space, giving the world an unparalleled look at the great beyond that was never seen before.
For more than a year now, James Webb was a lone explorer who shared different sightings and discoveries with humans from its incredibly powerful cameras. However, that does not mean it is not open for any help, with NASA awarding this contract to bring Webb a sidekick, in the form of a CubeSat that will join it on its space ventures.
