Installing The Roman Space Telescope’s Coronagraph Fast Steering Mirror

An engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is shown here with the fast steering mirror, a component of the Coronagraph Instrument on NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

The mirror can make small movements that correct for slight wobbling of the observatory. The incoming image needs to be perfectly sharp in order for the instrument to suppress light from a star while allowing the light from planets orbiting it to pass through.

Although the technologies differ, it’s analogous to image stabilization in digital cameras, in which the camera lens moves to counteract the shake of your hands and keep the image sharp.

NASA ID: PIA25437 Date Created: 2022-12-21 larger image