From Mine to Space: Minerals, Energy and Engineering Behind NASA's New Roman Telescope
The latest space observatory from the U.S. space agency is now traveling toward its destination about 1.6 million kilometers from Earth. Solar energy, high-purity silver, electronics, sensors and massive data processing are part of a mission that shows how far materials and technology can reach. Among its executive managers is Lucas Paganini, an engineer trained at the University of Mendoza in Argentina.
Space exploration is often associated with rockets, planets and major scientific discoveries. But before reaching space there is another story: that of the materials, energy and engineering necessary to build machines capable of operating for years millions of kilometers from any workshop or maintenance equipment.
The new Nancy Grace Roman space telescope from NASA is a concrete example of that relationship.
Roman launched on Sunday, August 30, from Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy. It has now begun its journey toward an orbit around the L2 Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth system, located approximately 1.6 million kilometers from our planet.
There it will have the mission to investigate some of the greatest mysteries of physics and astronomy, including dark matter, dark energy and the formation of planetary systems.
But viewed from a publication specialized in mining and energy, Roman also allows us to observe another issue: what resources, materials and technologies does frontier innovation need to exist.
Silver to observe the universe
One of the elements that best explains that relationship is at the very heart of the telescope.
Roman has a primary mirror 2.4 meters in diameter, practically the same size as Hubble's. Its surface is coated with a layer of silver less than 400 nanometers thick, chosen for its ability to efficiently reflect the near-infrared light that the observatory will study.
It is a minimal amount of material applied with extraordinary precision, but crucial for the operation of one of the most sophisticated scientific instruments ever developed.
The mirror's surface, moreover, was polished to achieve average irregularities of just 1.2 nanometers.
The example shows one of the central characteristics of modern mining: the value of a mineral does not end with its extraction. From there begins an extensive chain of refining, processing, materials science and manufacturing capable of transforming raw material into high-tech components.
The silver used by Roman is thus a concrete case of how a resource from mining can end up forming part of a mission aimed at studying the universe.
Solar energy 1.6 million kilometers from Earth
The other major link is energetic.
Once deployed in space, Roman will depend on the Sun to power its instruments, computers, communications systems and control mechanisms.
The telescope features a solar panel system integrated into what is called the Solar Array Sun Shield. In total it has 3,902 solar cells, prepared to supply approximately 4,100 watts of power to the observatory.
The panels also fulfill a second fundamental function: thermally protecting the telescope.
Roman needs to keep its instruments in stable and relatively cold conditions to be able to detect faint infrared radiation from objects located at enormous distances.
Thus, electrical generation, energy management and thermal control become part of a single system.
The comparison with mining and energy industries emerges naturally. Producing energy is only part of the challenge. It is also necessary to manage it, control critical systems, monitor its operation and ensure operational continuity in extreme environments.
In Roman, a failure cannot be resolved by sending a maintenance crew.
Sensors, automation and enormous data generation
There is a third bridge with modern mining: data.
The telescope's primary scientific instrument is its Wide Field Instrument, a camera close to 300 megapixels made up of 18 detectors.
Roman's primary mirror measures 2.4 meters and has a silver coating less than 400 nanometers thick to optimize infrared observation. Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn.
With a resolution comparable to Hubble's in the infrared, Roman will be able to observe in a single exposure an area of sky approximately 100 times larger.
This will produce an extraordinary amount of information.
NASA estimates that Roman will send approximately 1.4 terabytes of raw scientific data per day and that during its five-year primary mission, the volume of processed information could reach approximately 20 petabytes.
Precision sensors, remote monitoring, automation, telecommunications, storage and processing of large volumes of information are also concepts that already form part of the technological transformation of mining and energy.
The scale and objectives are different, but there is a common logic: measure better to make better decisions and enable complex systems to function with increasingly higher levels of autonomy.
Lucas Paganini, the Mendoza native in a key role of the mission
To this technological story is added a direct connection with Mendoza.
Lucas Paganini, born in Maipú and initially trained as an engineer at the University of Mendoza, currently holds the position of Lead Program Executive of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope in NASA's Astrophysics Division.
The Mendoza native Lucas Paganini is Lead Program Executive of the Roman space telescope within NASA's Astrophysics Division. Credit: NASA.
From that position he participates in the executive leadership of one of the U.S. space agency's major astrophysics missions.
Paganini studied Electronic Engineering and Telecommunications at the University of Mendoza and later continued his studies in Germany, where he obtained a doctorate in Natural Sciences from the University of Freiburg.
His scientific career was linked to the study of comets, icy bodies of the Solar System and Jupiter's moons, among other fields, before assuming management responsibilities within NASA.
His trajectory takes on particular significance for Mendoza.
While the province advances in discussions and projects related to mining, renewable energy, infrastructure and training professionals for technological industries, an engineer trained locally participates in the leadership of one of the most relevant scientific missions of this generation.
The mining behind the technology
Roman is not, naturally, a mining mission.
But its existence allows us to observe something that often remains hidden when talking about innovation: there is no technological revolution without materials.
The energy transition, digitalization, data centers, electric vehicles, satellites and space exploration depend on industrial chains that begin with mineral resources and continue with increasingly sophisticated stages of processing, refining and manufacturing.
Roman takes that logic to one of its extremes.
It uses metals transformed with nanometer precision, photovoltaic energy, advanced electronics, highly sensitive sensors and processing systems capable of handling enormous amounts of information.
All to attempt to answer some of humanity's oldest questions.
The telescope will travel to deep space to investigate, among other things, the mysterious dark energy that appears to be accelerating the expansion of the universe.
But to do so it will depend on another, much more familiar energy on Earth: that of the Sun.
And also on materials that, before becoming instruments of space exploration, have their origin much closer to home: in the resources provided by our own planet.