Episode 1806: Roman’s March to L-2

It’s all hands on deck for the Talking Space Team as we examine the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope which began its three month journey to its permanent station-keeping point at Lagrange Point 2. Once there and fully commissioned, Roman will begin it’s initial 5 year mission, surveying billions galaxies to track how galactic structures change over time, hunting super novae to measure how the universe is expanding, and measuring weak gravitational lensing which tracks how the gravity of invisible dark matter warps the light of distant galaxies. Roman is expected to locate up to 100,000 new exoplanets or more by monitoring millons of stars, using a process called gravitational microlensing which enables Roman to find even the smallest of planets around an observable star and will watch for any star tranists or dimming of stars which occurs when a planet blocks a fraction of light a star emits. And as with all NASA missions, there is a tech demo planned. A new instrument, the Chronograph will act as a deep space “umbrella” of sorts, blocking the light of a star so that a planet that might be on orbit can be observed and recorded. Our Kennedy Space Center chief correspondent Mark Ratterman was on site to document the launch day minus one activity and launch day itself that brought us the sound of five million pounds of thrust from the 27 Merlin engines of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch vehicle. Mark also interviewed Jeff Hanke, President of Space Systems and Mission Systems and Wendy Minotti, Program Manager, Exquisite Imaging, Space and Imaging Systems at L3-Harris, a critical member of the Roman Telescope team about their role in preparing the telescope’s mirror. Roman carries the names of 1,350,144 people on a commemorative placard on board the spacecraft. If you missed your opportunity to get your name on the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope, you still have an opportunity to put your mark on the mission by adopting a pixel on Roman’s “First Light” image. Click here to go to the NASA page to reserve your pixel. Use the following links to learn more about the Roman Telescope, Nancy Grace Roman the mother of the Hubble Space telescope and her legacy or current Roman Mission status. Links to other resources and recorded events: ROMAN L-1 Science Briefing (Video) https://images.nasa.gov/details/KSC-20260829-VP-FMX01-0001-Roman_Space_Telescope_Science_Briefing-1080p-M26244 ROMAN L-1 Prelaunch News Conference (Video) https://images.nasa.gov/details/KSC-20260829-VP-FMX02-0001-Roman_Space_Telescope_Prelaunch_News_Conference-1080p-M26243 Roman Postlaunch News Conference (Video) https://images.nasa.gov/details/KSC-20260830-VP-FMX02-0001-Roman_Space_Telescope_Postlaunch_News_Conference_4K-M26245 NASA's ROMAN Blog https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/roman/ NASA ROMAN Instrument Details https://science.nasa.gov/mission/roman-space-telescope/roman-observatory/ Adopt a Pixel on the Roman First Light Image https://science.nasa.gov/mission/roman-space-telescope/adopt-a-pixel/ About Nancy Grace Roman ( Via American Association of University Women ) https://www.aauw.org/resources/faces-of-aauw/nancy-grace-roman-the-life-and-legacy-of-a-nasa-star/ Team Members This Week: Gene Mikulka, Mark Ratterman, Dr. Kat Robison, Heather Smith.