I have no deeply informed standing to write about the James Webb Space Telescope, only that of an enthusiast of science. The JWST has been in the making since even before the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990. On December 25, 2021 the JWST finally made it into space at a price tag to the American taxpayer of nearly $10,000,000,000.
Ten. Bee-lee-yohne. DOLLARS!
NASA's lifetime cost for the project is expected to be US$9.7 billion, of which US$8.8 billion was spent on spacecraft design and development and US$861 million is planned to support five years of mission operations. Representatives from ESA and CSA stated their project contributions amount to approximately €700 million and CA$200 million, respectively.
--wikipedia
So o.k., the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency kicked in a little, but the question remains: What am I going to get for all this money? What’s in this for
ME?
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If you haven’t detected my snark in the opening paragraphs, be now informed that that is snark. There may not be any practical application or tangible, meaning monetary or material, benefit from what we learn from the JWST. This, folks, is pure science.
What is Pure Science?
Pure Science is a science that derives theories and predictions. Pure Science can also be known as natural science, basic science or fundamental science. Pure sciences deals with the study of natural phenomena through observation, experimentation and use of scientific methods.
Pure science is often conducted in a laboratory. The main objective of pure science is to increase information of a particular field of study and develop scientific theories.
Physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics etc. are some of the major streams pursued in Pure Sciences.
Pure sciences is one of the most interesting and research oriented fields. It plays a crucial role in innovation, new discoveries and inventions. Pure science creates and establishes information to understand nature. It describes the most basic objects, forces, relations between them and laws governing them, such that all other phenomena may be in principle derived from them following the logic of scientific reductionism.
No, the JWST is not looking to find a cure for cancer or asteroids to mine for precious metals. It’s after information and data:
The James Webb Space Telescope has four key goals:
--wikipedia
But notice that one sentence in the last paragraph in the quote block above on pure science: “It plays a crucial role in innovation, new discoveries and inventions.” So, the things that we will learn from the James Webb Space Telescope may, in the future, bring about things that we can scarcely imagine possible today.
So is there anything that pure science provides that we can take to the bank right now? Yes! Besides education and knowledge, which are priceless, there are jobs, jobs, jobs, baby!
(Cut to the 2:55 mark if you want to skip to the career opportunities that work in pure science can offer).
Pure science can be just personally rewarding.
Ah, there is one thing at least that we’ve got for our money so far from the James Webb Space Telescope: the thing is working perfectly. For all its incredible complexity and the countless ways that it could have failed and that ten billion Spacebucks to have gone right down a Black Hole Sh*tter, this is one hell of an accomplishment.