Scientists, fishermen want feds to keep funding deep-ocean observation system - WBUR

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s fine-guidance system, which allows the observatory to lock very steadily onto its targets during observations, passed a spate of tests from Sept. 15 to 21. Then on Sept. 22, the mission’s Coronagraph Instrument opened its eyes to cosmic light for the very first time. The team assigned a small part of each of the 18 detectors in Roman’s primary instrument, the Wide Field Instrument, to rapidly observe a separate guide star — stars with well-known positions used as reference points. When Roman’s attitude control system gets the spacecraft pointed in the right direction, information from the fine-guidance system then helps hold it steady throughout each observation so it doesn’t drift off target. Using only the attitude control system, Roman’s images wouldn’t be as crisp.