James Webb Space Telescope optical telescope element mirror development history and results

Feinberg, Lee; Clampin, Mark; Keski-Kuha, Ritva; Atkinson, Charlie; Texter, S.; Bergeland, Mark; Gallagher, Benjamin

doi:10.1117/12.924271

Cited by 20 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…The primary mirror of Webb contains 18 thin and light-weight hexagonal beryllium mirror segments, each measuring 1.32 m across (flat-to-flat) and weighing just 20 kg without the support infrastructure. The surface aberrations on each mirror segment are <30 nm rms [21].…”

Section: Observatory Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scientific discovery with the James Webb Space Telescope

Kalirai

2018

Contemporary Physics

118

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For the past 400 years, astronomers have sought to observe and interpret the Universe by building more powerful telescopes. These incredible instruments extend the capabilities of one of our most important senses, sight, towards new limits such as increased sensitivity and resolution, new dimensions such as exploration of wavelengths across the full electromagnetic spectrum, new information content such as analysis through spectroscopy, and new cadences such as rapid time-series views of the variable sky. The results from these investments, from small to large telescopes on the ground and in space, have completely transformed our understanding of the Universe; including the discovery that Earth is not the center of the Universe, that the Milky Way is one among many galaxies in the Universe, that relic cosmic background radiation fills all space in the early Universe, that that the expansion rate of the Universe is accelerating, that exoplanets are common around stars, that gravitational waves exist, and much more. For modern astronomical research, the next wave of breakthroughs in fields ranging over planetary, stellar, galactic, and extragalactic science motivate a general-purpose observatory that is optimized at nearand mid-infrared wavelengths, and that has much greater sensitivity, resolution, and spectroscopic multiplexing than all previous telescopes. This scientific vision, from measuring the composition of rocky worlds in the nearby Milky Way galaxy to finding the first sources of light in the Universe to other topics at the forefront of modern astrophysics, motivates the state-of-the-art James Webb Space Telescope (Webb). In this review paper, I summarize the design and technical capabilities of Webb and the scientific opportunities that it enables.

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Section: Observatory Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scientific discovery with the James Webb Space Telescope

Kalirai

2018

Contemporary Physics

118

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“…Manufacturing, coating, and final cryogenic testing of all telescope mirrors has been completed ( Figure 5). Their performance has been verified through test to be within specification in every respect (Feinberg et al 2012). The mirror segment actuators are periodically adjusted in flight to ensure diffraction limited image quality throughout the mission.…”

Section: Collecting the First Lightmentioning

confidence: 99%

The JWST science instrument payload: mission context and status

Greenhouse

2014

SPIE Proceedings

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The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is the scientific successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. It is a cryogenic infrared space observatory with a 25 m 2 aperture (6 m class) telescope that will achieve diffraction limited angular resolution at a wavelength of 2 um. The science instrument payload includes four passively cooled near-infrared instruments providing broad-and narrow-band imagery, coronography, as well as multi-object and integral-field spectroscopy over the 0.6 < λ < 5.0 um spectrum. An actively cooled mid-infrared instrument provides broad-band imagery, coronography, and integral-field spectroscopy over the 5.0 < λ < 29 um spectrum. The JWST is being developed by NASA, in partnership with the European and Canadian Space Agencies, as a general user facility with science observations to be proposed by the international astronomical community in a manner similar to the Hubble Space Telescope. Technology development and mission design are complete. Construction, integration and verification testing is underway in all areas of the program. The JWST is on schedule for launch during 2018. This science case forms the basis from which detailed science and mission requirements were derived to guide engineering design and development of the JWST as a research tool. The science observations that are implemented by the JWST will be proposed by the international astronomical community in response to annual peer reviewed proposal opportunities (Rigby 2012). The discovery potential of the JWST relative to other concurrent facilities is discussed in Thronson, Stiavelli, and Tielens 2009. The emergence of the first sources of light in the universe marks the end of the "Dark Ages" in cosmic history (Rees 1997). The ultraviolet radiation field produced by these sources created the ionization that is observed in the local intergalactic medium (IGM). The JWST design provides unique capability to address key questions about this era in cosmic evolution including: what is the nature of the first galaxies; how and when did ionization of the space between them occur; and what sources caused the ionization? The JWST architecture is primarily shaped by requirements associated with answering the above questions.In contrast to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the JWST is designed as an infrared optimized telescope to observe the redshifted visible and ultraviolet radiation from the first galaxies and supernovae of the first stars. To achieve the nJy sensitivity needed to observe this era (z ~ 6-20), the observatory must have a telescope aperture that is larger in diameter than the largest rocket faring, and the entire optical system must be cooled to ~40-50 K. Finally, the resulting large deployable cryogenic telescope must achieve HST-like angular resolution, but at a 4X longer wavelength thus, also necessitating a large diameter telescope aperture. The major observatory design features (Table 1, Figure 1) trace directly from these requirements and differ markedly from those of the HST.

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“…The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is jointly constructed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) [3]. Its primary lens consists of 6 sub-lenses in the center and 12 sub-lenses on both sides (Figure 1 left).…”

Section: Synthetic Aperture Imaging Technologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of new ultra-large aperture optical remote sensing imaging technology

Niu

Zhi

Jiang

et al. 2023

Second International Conference on Optoelectronic Information and Computer Engineering (OICE 2023)

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With the rapid development of earth observation by optical remote sensing satellites, there is an urgent requirement of remote sensing data with high-resolution in environmental monitoring, urban planning and other applications. The resolution of remote sensing images (RSIs) significantly depends on the aperture size of space imaging system. However, limited by manufacturing level and carrying capacity, the traditional optical materials and reflection/refraction imaging principle have encountered a bottleneck in the manufacturing of space imaging system with ultra-large aperture and lightweight. Consequently, it is necessary to develop brand new space optical imaging systems. In this paper, we summarize the imaging mechanism and development history of three ultra-large aperture imaging technologies, including synthetic aperture imaging technology, diffractive membrane imaging technology and rotating synthetic aperture imaging technology, and analyze the challenges existing in their application.

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James Webb Space Telescope optical telescope element mirror development history and results

Cited by 20 publications

References 0 publications

Scientific discovery with the James Webb Space Telescope

Scientific discovery with the James Webb Space Telescope

The JWST science instrument payload: mission context and status

Development of new ultra-large aperture optical remote sensing imaging technology

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