The James Webb Space Telescope, an international partnership between NASA, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), launched on December 25, 2021 , on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana, North America. South. Following launch and separation of the rocket, Webb’s Mission Operations Center in Baltimore, United States, confirmed that the spacecraft deployed its solar array correctly and is traveling toward the second Lagrange point L2, 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.
The fact of having its home so far from us has meant that space engineers have had to devise multiple mechanisms that are capable of folding on Earth and unfolding in space without margin of error.
Its spectacular folding mirror and its extendable parasol are among the most striking elements of its composition. In fact, since the telescope was too large to fit on the rocket’s nose cone, scientists configured the telescope to be transported fully folded, like origami . Its deployment has been and will be a complex and challenging task that has never been used in space engineering. Everything is folded and will be unfolded part by part: first the communications antenna, then the solar panels, then the parasol and finally the huge mirror.
Webb’s mirror
The centerpiece of the telescope is its huge primary mirror, a concave structure 6.5 meters wide and made up of 18 smaller hexagonal mirrors. They are made of beryllium (which is strong and light) coated with gold , optimized to reflect infrared light from the far reaches of the universe. This enormous length allows the mirror to collect more light from the objects it observes when the telescope is in space. The telescope includes instruments from the Canadian Space Agency and the European Space Agency.
Webb’s parasol
The hood will protect it from direct light , as the telescope needs to operate at fairly low temperatures. At about -220 ºC, this temperature will be more than enough for most of your instruments to operate properly. The parasol consists of five layers, shaped like a kite and built to unfold to the size of a tennis court. Its membranes are made of Kapton , a material known for its high resistance to heat and stability in a wide temperature range. All this will be very necessary in space, since the side of the shield facing the Sun will heat up to 110 ºC, while the other side will reach minimums of minus 200 ºC.
This engineering marvel will help answer fundamental questions about the universe, looking back in time 13 billion years. It is the most powerful space observatory ever built.
Unlike Hubble, which moves in and out of Earth’s shadow every 90 minutes, Webb will have an unobstructed view that will allow science operations to take place 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. . It will always be in the same position relative to Earth, approximately 1.5 million kilometers away, so we can have constant communication with the telescope as Earth orbits through the Deep Space Network (DSN) using three large terrestrial antennas located in Australia, Spain and California. The data will be transmitted from JWST to Earth via NASA’s Deep Space Network, processed and calibrated in STScI, and then disseminated online to astronomers around the world.
