On January 4, 2022, engineers completed the successful deployment of the James Webb Space Telescope’s sunshade, seen here during its final deployment test on Earth in December. 2020 at Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach, California. A 5-layer, tennis court-sized sunshade is essential to protecting the telescope from the heat, allowing Webb’s instruments to cool down to the extremely low temperatures needed to accomplish scientific goals. his study.
The James Webb Space Telescope team has fully deployed the spacecraft’s 70-foot-tall sun visor, a major milestone in its preparations for scientific operation.
The sun visor – about the size of a tennis court at full size – was folded to fit the payload area of the Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket cone prior to launch. The Webb team began remote deployment of the sunshade on December 28, 2021, three days after launch.
NASA will hold a teleconference meeting at 12:45 p.m. EST today, Tuesday, January 4, to discuss completing this important step. To participate by phone, the media must respond to Laura Betz at: [email protected]. The audio of the teleconference will also be streamed at work website.
“This is the first time anyone has attempted to put such a large telescope into space,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, deputy administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s Washington headquarters. time. “Webb requires not only careful assembly, but careful deployment. The success of the most challenging implementation – the visor – is an astounding demonstration of the human ingenuity and technical skill that will enable Webb to accomplish his scientific goals.”
The five-layer sunshade will protect the telescope from the light and heat of the Sun, Earth, and Moon. Each sheet of plastic is as thin as a human hair and coated with a reflective metal layer, providing protection above SPF 1 million. Together, the five layers reduce exposure to the Sun from more than 200 kilowatts of solar energy to a fraction of a watt.
This layer of protection is important to keep Webb’s scientific instruments at 40 kelvins, or below minus 380 degrees Fahrenheit – cold enough that the faint infrared light that Webb wants to observe.
“The opening of Webb’s sunshade in space is an incredible milestone that is crucial to the success of the mission,” said Gregory L. Robinson, Webb’s program manager at NASA Headquarters. “Thousands of parts had to be worked with precision for this feat of engineering to be perfected. The team achieved a bold feat with the complexity of this implementation – one of the boldest commitments ever made to Webb. ”
The opening takes place in the following order, within eight days:
- Two pallet structures – front and behind – unfolds to bring the observatory to its full length of 70 feet
- The Deployable tower assembly deployed to separate the telescope and instruments from the sunshade and main body of the spacecraft, allowing enough room for the visor to fully deploy
- The momentum behind flap and membrane has been released and deployed
- The between booms deployed, extends perpendicular to the pallet structure and allows the sunshade to extend to its full 47 feet . width
- Finally, at around 11:59 a.m. EST Tuesday, the sunshade was fully stretched and fixed into place, marking the sunshade deployment complete.
Opening and tensioning the sunshade involved 139 of Webb’s 178 release mechanisms, 70 hinge assemblies, 8 deploying motors, approximately 400 pulleys, and 90 individual cables for a total length of approximately 1/4 mile. . The team also paused deployment activities for a day to work Webb . tension motor and electrical system optimization, to ensure that Webb is in the best condition before starting work is to stretch the sunshade.
“The visor is remarkable because it will protect the telescope on this historic mission,” said Jim Flynn, sunshield manager at Northrop Grumman, NASA’s principal contractor for Webb. “This milestone event showcases the pioneering spirit of the thousands of engineers, scientists and technicians who have spent significant parts of their careers developing, designing, manufacturing and testing space technology. this first pillar.”
The world’s largest and most complex space science observatory is still 5 and a half months away, including deployment of secondary and primary mirrors, alignment of optical telescopes, and calibration of instruments. science. Webb will then provide its first images.
The telescope’s revolutionary technology will explore every stage of the universe’s history – from the interior of our solar system to the most distant observable galaxies in the early universe, to everything in between. Webb will reveal new and unexpected discoveries and help humanity understand the origins of the universe and our place in it.
The James Webb . Space Telescope is an international partnership with ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency. NASA headquarters oversees the mission. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages Webb for the agency and oversees mission work by the Space Telescope Science Institute, Northrop Grumman, and mission partners other performed. In addition to Goddard, several NASA centers contributed to the project, including the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, the Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, and others.
To know more about where Webb is in operation:
https://webb.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/deploymentExplorer.html
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