In a little under a decade, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) program has designed, manufactured, assembled and tested 21 flight beryllium mirrors for the James Webb Space Telescope Optical Telescope Element. This paper will summarize the mirror development history starting with the selection of beryllium as the mirror material and ending with the final test results. It will provide an overview of the technological roadrnap and schedules and the key challenges that were overcome. It will also provide a summary orthe key tests that were performed and the results of these tests.
2014 marks the crystal (15 th ) anniversary of the launch of the Chandra X-ray Observatory, which began its existence as the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF). This paper offers some of the major lessons learned by some of the key members of the Chandra Telescope team. We offer some of the lessons gleaned from our experiences developing, designing, building and testing the telescope and its subsystems, with 15 years of hindsight. Among the topics to be discussed are the early developmental tests, known as VETA-I and VETA-II, requirements derivation, the impact of late requirements and reflection on the conservatism in the design process.
It is imperative that we have high confidence that the optical performance capability of JWST is well-understood before launch. With the telescope operating at cryogenic temperatures and sporting a 6.6 meter primary mirror diameter, the optical metrology equipment required to measure the optical performance can be quite complex. The JWST Test team undertook an effort to greatly simplify the optical metrology approach, while retaining the key measurements and verification methodology. The result is a cryogenic optical test configuration and implementation using Chamber A at NASA's Johnson Space Center that uses the science instruments to help understand JWST's optical performance.
Significant progress has been made in the development of the Optical Telescope Element (OTE) for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Observatory. All of the mirror assemblies are complete and delivered. The composite Primary Mirror Backplane Support Structure (PMBSS) has completed assembly and in Static Load testing. All the deployment mechanisms have completed their qualification programs. This paper will discuss the current status of all the OTE components and the plan forward to completion.
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