Good day gamers,

So, I just saw something crazy.

I watched the Webb telescope launch live on NASA Twitch.

Now that it’s in orbit, while it’s getting into final position, the announcer said it is doing what is called the sawtooth maneuver.

What is that you ask?

Well, since it’s now above our atmosphere, it is directly exposed to the sun

.The issue is that some components facing the sun would start to warm up and this could throw off the trajectory of the telescope.

So, they would rotate the telescope 30 degrees one way and then 30 degrees back, and then back the other way and repeat.

This would warm most or all the components equally.

Crazy.

I think they should have called this the Rotisserie maneuver instead.

The fact that a bunch of scientists, with some serious computing power, had to figure this out is absolutely amazing.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone.

• Game Master Dave