James Webb Space Telescope Technologies
Published on 4 May 2007 at 1:30 am.
No Comments.
Filed under Astronomy, Exploration, Inventions, Research, Space.
My good friend Joe Coughlan informed me that all 10 new technologies for the new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have been approved early!
The James Webb Space Telescope will have a large mirror that is 6.5 meters in diameter. Its sunshield will be the size of a tennis court, and it will be positioned in an orbit 1 million miles from Earth. The JWST will study the early universe in the infrared.
All 10 new technologies have been approved early, which will help speed this mission along. One of the technologies will enable the telescope’s mirrors to be adjusted by a computer algorithm that monitors the image wavefront and computes the optimal mirror positions. Another new technology will be the implementation of microshutters that will allow researchers to block out unwanted light in an extremely well-controlled fashion. These shutters are little doorways that are the width of several human hairs.
Kevin Knuth
Albany NY
