11 December 2021 | New Scientist | 5The leader
THEY say good things come to those
who wait. And when it comes to the James
Webb Space Telescope (JWST), we have
been waiting long enough. Originally due
to launch in 2007, it has been plagued by
delays due to engineering problems, the
need to find money to meet its soaring
costs and, more recently, the covid-
pandemic. It has now racked up a bill
around 20 times its initial budget.
Finally set to blast off in a few weeks, this
extraordinary machine promises to show
us the moment the first stars lit up and
solve all manner of cosmic mysteries (see
page 36). But given all the effort and the
eye-watering expense, will it be worth it?
We could compare the project to
another feat of engineering, the Large
Hadron Collider (LHC). Like the JWST, the
LHC was first conceived in the mid-1990s.It would be a vast underground ring
of magnets designed to accelerate and
smash particles together to reveal the
secrets of the quantum world. It was also
late: it was meant to be finished in 2005,
but was first switched on in 2008 – and
it cost more than $5 billion to build.
Despite all that, the LHC is clearly asuccess story, revealing the existence of
the Higgs boson, a particle that confers
mass on all others, along with additional
insights that have given us invaluable
clues to the very nature of reality.
The promise of the JWST is just as great.
But it is far later than the LHC and twiceas expensive. Even if the telescope does
deliver on its promises, we shouldn’t
simply shrug off the expense of such
projects in the name of science. In future,
we need to find ways to manage epic
projects better – and manage expectations.
For starters, we should be more realistic
about costs from the get-go. However,
we should also see the JWST’s price tag in
perspective: it is a few billion dollars less
than the most advanced US aircraft carrier.
Ultimately, the telescope’s success rests
on the risky next phase of the mission. A
few days before Christmas, engineers plan
to strap it inside a rocket, fire the engines
and send it on a long journey into space.
For those astronomers watching with
bated breath, a safe launch would be
the most long-awaited – and expensive –
Christmas present they could wish for. ❚Better late than never?
The James Webb Space Telescope has come at great expense, but it should be worth it
“ To put the telescope’s price tag
in perspective: it is less than
the latest US aircraft carrier”Chief executive Nina Wright
Executive assistant Lorraine Lodge
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