The James Webb Telescope sunshield has been successfully deployed
[NOTE I wrote about the James Webb Telescope previously here.]
I’ve grown so used to assuming government incompetence (or worse) as the default position that I’m gobsmacked by this news:
The James Webb Space Telescope team has fully deployed the spacecraft’s 70-foot sunshield, a key milestone in preparing it for science operations.
The sunshield – about the size of a tennis court at full size – was folded to fit inside the payload area of an Arianespace Ariane 5 rocket’s nose cone prior to launch. The Webb team began remotely deploying the sunshield Dec. 28, 2021, three days after launch…
The five-layered sunshield will protect the telescope from the light and heat of the Sun, Earth, and Moon. Each plastic sheet is about as thin as a human hair and coated with reflective metal, providing protection on the order of more than SPF 1 million. Together, the five layers reduce exposure from the Sun from over 200 kilowatts of solar energy to a fraction of a watt.
This protection is crucial to keep Webb’s scientific instruments at temperatures of 40 kelvins, or under minus 380 degrees Fahrenheit – cold enough to see the faint infrared light that Webb seeks to observe.
“Unfolding Webb’s sunshield in space is an incredible milestone, crucial to the success of the mission,” said Gregory L. Robinson, Webb’s program director at NASA Headquarters. “Thousands of parts had to work with precision for this marvel of engineering to fully unfurl. The team has accomplished an audacious feat with the complexity of this deployment – one of the boldest undertakings yet for Webb.”…
The unfolding and tensioning of the sunshield involved 139 of Webb’s 178 release mechanisms, 70 hinge assemblies, eight deployment motors, roughly 400 pulleys, and 90 individual cables totaling roughly one quarter of a mile in length. The team also paused deployment operations for a day to work on optimizing Webb’s power systems and tensioning motors, to ensure Webb was in prime condition before beginning the major work of sunshield tensioning.
It certainly was a “bold undertaking,” and it’s not out of the woods yet, although I’m very impressed so far:
The world’s largest and most complex space science observatory has another 5 1/2 months of setup still to come, including deployment of the secondary mirror and primary mirror wings, alignment of the telescope optics, and calibration of the science instruments. After that, Webb will deliver its first images.
The goal is pretty darn comprehensive:
The telescope’s revolutionary technology will explore every phase of cosmic history – from within 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.
We’ve been wondering about that last bit for a long, long time, and though I’m impressed with Webb so far, I think even after its data is collected we’ll have a long long way to go before we understand “our place” in the universe. Science can tell us a lot, but I think the answers to that one lie in a different realm, or at least in the arena where science, philosophy, and religion meet.
This will truly be (should all go well) one of the most remarkable feats of engineering and of the exploratory imagination in human history, well worth the large expenditure, and likely to provide massive amounts of data and information, first to the scientific community and then to the general public. The very successful Hubble managed to produce absolutely stunning (colorized) images of the universe (the sublime “Pillars of Creation” being the most famous), and one can hope for even more from the Webb.
NASA livestreamed the deployment of the secondary mirror and the 90-minute video of that is up now — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EnlaXnFcGs
NASA recently hired two dozen clergy to think about social and cultural implications of finding alien life.
Coincidence? I think not
But it’s supposed to be sci fi writers, not clergy. Problem is finding a venue seedy enough to house a bunch of sci-fi authors.
The JWST will probably find Keith Richards as a baby.
Richard,
“Seedy enough”? What kind of SciFi are you reading?
Aggh! Intersectionality! “in the arena where science, philosophy, and religion meet.”
How many of us need “help” in understanding the origin of the universe? It did not start with the Big Bang. The Bang had a Starter, Yahweh or God, which the Webb cannot help us find or understand.
I don’t think Sci-Fi writer Larry Niven would settle for much seediness…. The man inherited vast Californian old money wealth and writes for the fun of it. There should be more like him.
I remember Jerry Pournelle mentioning that when the Reagan Administration hired a bunch of Sci-Fi authors to brainstorm more out there Star Wars project ideas, they did some of their sessions Chez Niven because he was the only guy had a big enough place to hold them all.
Now the current crop of officially approved sufficiently woke Hugo contenders and winners wouldn’t be of much theological or psychological use in the case of discovery of Alien Life. They’d most likely invite the Little Green Men around for drugs, inter-species cosplay butt sex, and a body modification symposium. And in a Seedy Dive for sure! And don’t forget the Lava Lamps. Establishment Sci-Fi is circling the bowl.
They should put a telescope on the Moon. Sure, it would be in the Sun for half a month, but would still be best and closest spot for astronomy for the other half of the month.
@Yancey Ward:
The great thing about a Lagrange Point is that you can just (sorta, kinda) float there. You ain’t going nowhere. Unlike the Moon which is always in a rush to go somewhere. This probably helps with taking long exposures of faint stuff very far away.
Also, thermal management and expansion/contraction would be a Female Dog if the thing were on the Moon alternating between light and dark.
Also, put it on the Moon and pretty soon you’re going to have a Chinaman holding up fortune cookie papers in front of it for your reading pleasure… And then what could you do about it? 😀
I know a married couple who met at a sci-fi authors convention. A bit odd, but they seem happy. Been married at least 25 years.
@ Neo > “I’ve grown so used to assuming government incompetence (or worse) as the default position that I’m gobsmacked by this news:”
Don’t get cocky.
https://i2.wp.com/www.powerlineblog.com/ed-assets/2021/12/Screen-Shot-2021-12-29-at-8.59.42-PM.png?w=1208&ssl=1
This is mostly fake to cover for military industrial black ops budgets. M9ney laundering