Fighting Bias In Space: When There's A New Telescope, Who Gets To Use It?

Short Wave

NPR

Science, Life Sciences, News, Nature, Daily News, Astronomy

4.7 • 6.5K Ratings

🗓️ 21 January 2022

⏱️ 14 minutes

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Summary

The James Webb Space Telescope's mirrors are almost in place and soon it'll be a million miles away from Earth, ready to provide clues to the history of the universe. Naturally, many scientists have research they'd like to do that involve the telescope. Today on the show, Emily talks with correspondent Nell Greenfieldboyce about who gets time on it, and how decision-makers are working to stay focused on the proposed science instead of who will be doing it, in the hopes of making the process fair for all proposals.

For more of Nell's reporting, check out, Who gets to use NASA's James Webb Space Telescope? Astronomers work to fight bias. (https://n.pr/3tH2vwJ)

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:04.6	Hey Emily.
0:05.6	Hey, no.
0:06.6	I don't know about you, but listen, I have been following the saga of the James Webb Space
0:10.5	Telescope with great joy.
0:13.1	Remember it launched on Christmas Day and then it unfolded that tricky silver sun shield
0:17.8	the size of a tennis court.
0:19.3	Yeah, I LOL pretty hard when the James Webb Space Telescope Twitter account blocked the
0:26.9	Twitter accounts representing the sun and the moon like mirroring what was happening
0:32.6	in real life, how the sun shield blocks heat in light.
0:35.2	Anyway, it was kind of nerdy, but they actually blocked them or were they just like I saw
0:38.9	a lot of trash talk, but no, no, no, they actually blocked them.
0:42.6	Millennials have taken over the James Webb Twitter account, I assume.
0:45.6	Well, I mean, the telescope was in the works for like two decades, so they had plenty of
0:49.0	time to plan their social media campaign.
0:52.0	They've been scheduling these tweets for years.
0:54.8	So this telescope, it's the most powerful one ever put into space.
0:59.6	Even more powerful than our beloved Hubble.
1:02.2	It will take months before it's in full operation, but there's already a long line of astronomers
1:07.7	clamoring to use it.
1:09.6	You know it.
1:10.6	I mean, even before it launched, the first call for research proposals drew in more than
	...

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