NASA's Webb Telescope
Sunshield Preliminary Design Review Complete
(20 March 2008) The tennis court-sized
sunshield built by Northrop Grumman for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has
completed its preliminary design review at the company's Space Technology
facility.
The Webb Telescope is the next-generation space
observatory, designed to explore phenomena from distant galaxies to nearby
planets and stars. From the origins of the universe to the formation of star
systems capable of supporting life on planets such as Earth, the Webb telescope
will give scientists unprecedented access to unexplored regions of
space.
This photograph shows the engineering model of the sunshield, called the pathfinder. (courtesy: Northrop Grumman)
"The sunshield is absolutely critical to the
Webb telescope mission," says Keith Parrish, JWST Sunshield Manager at NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "It will be folded up around the
telescope when the telescope is aboard its rocket during launch. The sunshield
will then deploy in space to shade the sensitive, precision telescope optics
and science instruments from the Sun and enable the observatory to reach its
proper operating temperature and environment. Without it, the telescope and
instruments can't work. Northrop Grumman is leveraging their experience in
large deployable structures in space to come up with a design that will do the
job for the Webb telescope."
The five-layer sunshield consists of
extremely thin, specially coated reflective membranes and a supporting
structure. The sunshield blocks solar heat, keeping the telescope's science
instruments operating at cryogenic temperatures so astronomers can study
distant galaxies, young stars and planetary systems at near- and mid-infrared
wavelengths.
"The completion of the preliminary design review allows the
detailed engineering design to move forward and maintains the delivery schedule
for the Observatory," said Martin Mohan, Program Manager for the Webb
Telescope.
When fully deployed, the sunshield that will be about the size of a regulation tennis court. This image compares the size of the sunshield to the size of a tennis court. (courtesy: NASA)
Completion of the preliminary sunshield
design is the latest in a series of significant accomplishments. One year ago,
the Northrop Grumman engineers developing sunshield membrane materials
demonstrated that the sunshield prototype material had been successfully
tested, functioning as predicted, in a relevant environment (simulating
space).
Northrop Grumman is prime contractor for the Webb Telescope,
leading the design and development effort under contract to NASA Goddard. It is
scheduled for launch in 2013.
(source: NASA)
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