NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has been exploring outer space alone for some time now. 

(Photo: JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images) A woman stood near a model of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, on April 2, 2015. AFP PHOTO/ JIM WATSON

Ever since the international space union launched JWST in 2021, the spacecraft has been exploring locations in the solar system that other space telescopes weren't able to reach. 

As of press time, the James Webb Space Telescope is orbiting the sun 1.5 million kilometers away from Earth. 

It is specifically located in the second Lagrange point (L2). This is really a lonesome space travel for JWST, but not for long, as NASA's advanced space telescope will soon have a CubeSat sidekick. 

NASA James Webb To Have Cubesat Sidekick!

According to News8Live Science's latest report, the NASA JWST will have the MANTIS Cubesat as its companion. 

(Photo: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI via Getty Images) In this handout photo provided by NASA, a landscape of mountains and valleys speckled with glittering stars is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula, on July 12, 2022, in space. Captured in infrared light by NASA's new James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals for the first time previously invisible areas of star birth.

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The space organization already confirmed that it selected this small, but nimble satellite as James Webb Space Telescope's sidekick. 

NASA's budget for the MANTIS (Monitoring Activity from Nearby sTars) spacecraft is estimated to be more than $8 million. 

This is still far compared to the expected lifetime cost for JWST; the advanced infrared space telescope is expected to cost over $9 billion throughout its space operations. 

CU Boulder Today reported that the advanced MANTIS CubeSat would be designed by LASP (Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics) at the University of Colorado Boulder. 

"We proposed MANTIS as a kind of ultraviolet sidekick that will follow JWST and look wherever it's looking, filling in this important piece of context on the stellar environments in which these planets live," said LASP Associate Prof. Kevin France.  

About MANTIS Cubesat 

The MANTIS satellite got its name from the popular mantis shrimp. Just like this marine crustacean, the CubeSat can also see ultraviolet, as well as extreme ultraviolet light. 

This capability will greatly provide additional context to the infrared observations made by JWST. 

LASP is expected to start working on the new companion of the James Webb Space Telescope. The Italian Space Agency, as well as Pennsylvania State University, are expected to assist in the development of the MANTIS satellite. 

It is expected to be launched as early as 2026. You can visit this link to learn more about the MANTIS Cubesat.  

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