The James Webb Space Telescope, what it was released on christmas day, successfully completed the deployment of its 21-meter solar shield last Tuesday.
This crucial milestone is one of several that must occur for the observatory of NASA function properly in space. Reaching this milestone was a huge relief for the Webb telescope team.
“Deploying Webb’s solar shield into space is an incredible milestone, crucial to the success of the mission,” Gregory L. Robinson, program director for the Webb telescope at NASA Headquarters, said in a statement.
“Thousands of parts had to function at precise levels for this engineering marvel to fully open. The team accomplished an audacious feat with the complexity of this deployment — one of Webb’s boldest endeavors.”
It’s one of the most challenging space deployments NASA has ever attempted, according to the agency.
Unfolding a tennis court in space
The massive five-layer solar shield will protect the giant Webb mirror and its instruments from the heat of the sun. Both the mirror and the instruments must be kept at a very low temperature, minus 370 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 188 degrees Celsius) to be able to observe the universe as intended. The five layers are as thin as a human hair and each coated in reflective metal.
When Webb was launched, the shield was folded to fit inside the Ariane 5 rocket that took the telescope into space. The process of deploying and docking the sun shield took eight days and began on December 28. The process included unfolding the shield’s support structure for several days before tightening or securing each layer began.
The fifth layer of the solar shield was fixed in place last Tuesday at 11:59 am Eastern Time or 1:59 pm EDT.
Overall, the entire process, which was controlled by teams on Earth, included the perfect and coordinated handling of hundreds of release mechanisms, hinges, deployment motors, pulleys and cables.
“The membrane attachment phase of sun shield deployment is particularly challenging because there are complex interactions between structures, the clamping mechanisms, cables and membranes,” said James Cooper, NASA sun shield manager at Goddard Space Flight Center, in a statement. “That was the hardest part to test on the ground, so it’s an amazing feeling to see everything going so well today.”
Teams have been working 12-hour shifts to ensure that everything runs smoothly with Webb deployments.
With the solar shield successfully installed, project manager Bill Ochs said the telescope overcame the 70% to 75% potential of more than 300 single-point failures that could disrupt its ability to function.
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This is what the Webb telescope’s sun shield looks like when it is fully deployed. Teams tested this difficult process on Earth a year before launch. / NASA
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“This milestone represents the pioneering spirit of thousands of engineers, scientists and technicians who have spent parts of their careers developing, planning, manufacturing and testing this unprecedented space technology,” said Jim Flynn, Solar Shield Manager at Northrop Grumman, Lead Partner. of NASA for the Webb Telescope project.
The telescope has the ability to look back in time using its infrared observations to reveal otherwise unseen aspects, as well as look deeper into space than ever before.
The Webb telescope will analyze all phases of cosmic history, including the first rays after the Big Bang that created our universe and the formation of the galaxies, stars and planets that fill space today. Its features will allow the observatory to penetrate exoplanet atmospheres and investigate faint evidence of the first galaxies formed 13.5 billion years ago.
“This is the first time anyone has ever attempted to put a telescope of this magnitude into space,” Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said in a statement. “Webb required not only careful assembly but also careful deployments. The success of its most challenging deployment — the solar shield — is an incredible testament to the human talent and engineering dexterity that will enable Webb to achieve its scientific goals.”
What comes next
The Webb telescope is expected to take around 29 days to reach its intended orbit millions of miles from Earth with other critical steps on the way — which includes another big challenge next week: opening the telescope’s mirror.
The mirror can extend 6.5 meters, a huge length that will allow it to collect more light from objects once the telescope is in space. The more light it captures, the more detail the telescope can reveal.
It’s the biggest mirror NASA has ever created, but its size created an unprecedented problem. The mirror was so big it couldn’t fit inside the rocket. Engineers designed the telescope as a series of moving parts that can be folded origami-style, and fit within 5 meters of space for launch.
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Scott Murray, Ball Aerospace optical technician, inspects the first gold primary mirror segments during assembly. / Disclosure/David Higginbotham/NASA
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This is the next series of crucial steps for Webb, making sure the 18 gold-plated mirror segments are unpacked and secured together. it is expected that all these steps be completed by the end of this week.
Finally, Webb will make one more trajectory adjustment to fit into the orbit beyond the moon.
While that takes place over the 29 days, the telescope will undergo a commissioning period in space that lasts about five and a half months, which involves cooling down, aligning and calibrating its instruments. All instruments will also go through a verification process to see how they are performing.
The Webb telescope will begin collecting data and its first images in 2022 with a launch scheduled for June or July, forever changing the way we see and understand the universe.
