Who is the Argentinian behind the Nancy Grace Roman telescope, NASA's next big mission?

The next great space observatory of NASA It's already in the countdown. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope It is scheduled to take off on Sunday, August 30th from the Kennedy Space Center, in Florida, aboard a SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket.

The mission will attempt to answer some of the most complex questions in modern astronomy: why the universe is expanding faster and faster, how dark matter is distributed, and how many planets exist beyond the solar system.

A scientist originally from [location missing] is participating in the project. Mendoza: Lucas Paganini He is the lead program executive for the Nancy Grace Roman Observatory within NASA's Astrophysics Division. In this role, he acts as a liaison between the teams that developed the observatory and the space agency's executives who are responsible for evaluating its progress, managing resources, and making strategic decisions. NASA officially presents him as one of the key figures in the executive leadership of its upcoming flagship astrophysics mission.

In dialogue with the program MDZ Club, from MDZ Radio 105.5Paganini confirmed that the target date is August 30 and explained that the observatory has already been transported from Maryland to Cape Canaveral. “We are at a very important stage. There is a lot of work and a lot of excitement,” he noted during the interview. The spacecraft must now complete final checks, encapsulation, and integration with the Falcon Heavy before being taken to the historic Launch Complex 39A.

The moment represents the culmination of approximately a decade of planning, construction, integration, and testing. For Paganini, the launch will not only be a scientific event. It will also bring to a close the work of more than a thousand engineers, technicians, specialists, and managers from various departments who participated in the manufacture of millions of components and in the tests designed to ensure that the observatory can survive launch and operate in space.

Who is Lucas Paganini, the man from Mendoza who made it to NASA?

Lucas Paganini She is 46 years old, lives in the United States, and has been working at NASA for 15 years. Her education began in Mendoza: she completed her primary studies at a public school in Maipú and later attended San Luis Gonzaga High School.

Later he studied Electronic and Telecommunications Engineering at the Universidad de MendozaThat technical foundation paved the way for an international scientific degree course, which continued with a doctorate in Natural Sciences at the University of Freiburg, Germany.

His career at NASA spans astrophysics, planetary science, astrobiology, and mission management. He also led long-term research on Europa, one of Jupiter's icy moons and one of the most important bodies in the search for potentially habitable environments beyond Earth. He is the author of more than 30 scientific publications, and an asteroid, 33323 Lucaspaganini, was named in recognition of his contributions.

Currently, her primary responsibility is to oversee the lifecycle of the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope. Space missions go through various phases, from concept formulation and planning to manufacturing, testing, launch, and scientific operations.

At each stage, technical, budgetary, and administrative reviews are conducted. Paganini must help the team pass these evaluations and communicate progress, difficulties, and decisions that could affect the mission to NASA's top officials.

“I’m the point of contact between the project and the NASA directors who have to make decisions,” she explained. Her role includes understanding technical issues, tracking funding, and conveying strategic information to agency administrators.

What will the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope do?

The Nancy Grace Roman telescope was designed to to study the universe in infrared wavelengthsIts main mirror measures 2,4 meters in diameter, the same size as that of the Hubble Space Telescope, but its design will allow it to observe much larger areas of the sky.

The key difference will be its panoramic capability. Its main instrument, called the Wide Field Instrument or WFI, will have a camera of approximately 300 megapixels and a field of view at least one hundred times larger than Hubble's. A single exposure will be able to gather a level of detail comparable to that of one hundred images from that observatory.

During its primary five-year mission, Roman will be able to measure light from nearly a billion galaxies. The vast amount of data will allow scientists to reconstruct how large cosmic structures formed and how the expansion rate of the universe changed over billions of years.

NASA estimates that the observatory will be able to survey the sky up to a thousand times faster than Hubble, while maintaining similar sensitivity and infrared resolution. This combination of speed, range, and precision will make it an especially suitable tool for conducting large-scale astronomical surveys.

Dark energy, one of the great mysteries of the universe

One of the main objectives of the Nancy Grace Roman telescope will be to investigate dark energy, the name used to describe the unknown phenomenon that is driving the accelerated expansion of the universe.

Since the late 20th century, observations have indicated that galaxies are not only moving away from each other, but are doing so at an ever-increasing speed. The nature of the force or property responsible for this acceleration remains one of the most important open problems in cosmology.

Roman will study this process using different methods. He will observe the distribution of millions of galaxies, analyze distant supernova explosions, and measure the tiny distortions that gravity produces on light. With this data, he will be able to create maps of visible and dark matter and compare how the structures of the cosmos evolved at different times.

Paganini maintained that future observations could modify central concepts of astronomy. "They are going to change somewhat the paradigm of what we understand about the universe and the cosmos," he predicted during the interview.

A large census of planets outside the solar system

The search for exoplanets will be another pillar of the mission. Roman will observe densely populated regions of stars in the center of the Milky Way and will primarily use two techniques: transits and gravitational microlensing.

A transit occurs when a planet passes in front of its star, causing a small, periodic dip in its brightness. Gravitational microlensing, on the other hand, occurs when a foreground object temporarily amplifies the light from a more distant star due to the curvature of space caused by its gravity.

The microlensing survey could detect more than a thousand exoplanets, including cold, distant worlds that are difficult to find using other methods. Adding transit detections, scientific estimates indicate that Roman could reveal around 100.000 potential planets and offer an unprecedented statistical view of the diversity of planetary systems in the galaxy.

The observatory will also carry an experimental coronagraph. This instrument will block the intense light of some stars to attempt to directly observe much fainter planets orbiting around them. This technological demonstration will be a significant step in the development of future telescopes designed to Curriculumetary atmospheres and search for signs of habitability.

The telescope's journey to a point beyond the Moon

After launch, the Nancy Grace Roman telescope will travel into a quasi-halo orbit around the second Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth system, known as L2. This region is located about 1,5 million kilometers from our planet, roughly four times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon.

At L2, the gravitational interaction of the Sun and Earth allows a spacecraft to maintain a stable orbit with relatively low fuel consumption. From there, the observatory will have a wide view of space and favorable thermal conditions for making highly precise infrared measurements.

Paganini explained that the first few months after liftoff will be dedicated to the journey, the deployment of the systems, and commissioning. Initial images could be obtained during the first few weeks, but calibrated data ready for scientific research would arrive approximately three months after launch, provided all operations proceed as planned.

The primary mission is expected to last five years, although the design allows for the possibility of extending operations to a decade. Roman will work in conjunction with Hubble, the James Webb Space Telescope, the European Euclid mission, and other ground-based and space-based observatories.

Ten years of work before reaching space

Roman was assembled and tested at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. After integration was completed, it was placed inside a temperature- and environmental-controlled container, transported to Baltimore, and shipped to Florida.

The journey across the Atlantic coast lasted about a week. The observatory arrived at the Kennedy Space Center on June 21 and was installed in a specially prepared room to complete final checks, have its solar panels inspected, have its thermal insulation checked, and be loaded with the fuel necessary for operations in space.

The launch is scheduled to take place from Launch Complex 39A, a facility linked to some of the most important events in American space exploration. Apollo missions to the Moon launched from there, and it is currently used by SpaceX for its Falcon rocket operations.

Paganini will be based at Cape Canaveral in the weeks leading up to the launch to participate in the inspections and oversee the final operations. “I’ll be there trying to share with people what it means to experience that moment, which is very significant for me,” he said.

The human dimension of a historic mission

The man from Mendoza believes that the greatest lesson from this experience isn't limited to technology or potential discoveries. It also relates to the ability of thousands of people to work for years toward a common goal.

“The construction, development, and planning took ten years. That's the life of many people, many engineers and technicians who dedicated a significant part of their degree course to accomplishing something like this,” he reflected.

The telescope is named after Nancy Grace Roman, NASA's first female Chief of Astronomy and one of the main drivers of space astronomy. Known as “the mother of Hubble”, Roman championed for decades the need to place large observatories outside Earth's atmosphere.

Now, the instrument that commemorates his legacy is preparing to produce some of the most extensive and accurate maps of the sky. When the Falcon Heavy lifts off from Florida, part of that mission will also have roots in Mendoza: those of an engineer trained in the province who rose to a central position in one of NASA's most ambitious scientific projects.