James Webb Space Telescope

A look into past and future…

Few words for the about the project
James Webb Space Telescope is telescope built between
2007-2021 as a infared space telescope. It is supposed to
be a successor of the Hubble Space Telescope. Project is
designed mostly financed by NASA in cooperation with ESA
and CSA. This is expected to enable a broad range of
investigations across the fields of astronomy and
cosmology, such as observations of first stars and the
formation of the first galaxies, and detailed atmospheric
characterization of potentially habitable exoplanets. It is
named after James Webb, NASA's second administrator.
The beginnings
The whole idea born in 1980s, but planning and
designing began in early 1990s. The main goal
was to design the telescope that would avoid
flawed optics, like it was in Hubble Telescope.
Instead of those serious issues, Hubble
Telescope was a successfull project, what
motivated NASA to create a concept of a larger
and much colder infared sensitive telescope
that could reach the birth of galaxies. In 1996
the designing work had started and ‚Next
Generation Space Telescope’ was supposed to
had record breaking 8m baffled aperture.
 Faster, better, cheaper (not at all)
Another big paradigm shift for astronomy was to brake the
barrier of a single mirror try not to eliminate moving part of
telescope but to has benefits of that (segmented optics).
Due to costs that grew month by month, the architects
were looking to different concepts to choose the one that
does its job by introducing revolutionary segmented optics
while reducing the cost of the entire project. Unfortunately,
the time, issues met in concept projects and many changes
were so expensive for engineers, what caused another
delays to even start making a prototype.
So what did they build ?
In 2007 after painfull designing proces nine of the ten technology
development items in the project successfully passed review and first
tests. These technologies were deemed sufficiently mature to retire
significant risks in the project. We split the whole build of telescope
into few parts:
• Spacecraft bus
• Sunshield
• Optics part
• Scientific instruments
 Spacecraft bus
The satellite platform (spacecraft bus) is the telescope's most
important component. It holds the various parts of the
telescope together and houses many structural, computing,
communication and propulsion devices. The platform supports
a 6.5-ton telescope with 350 kg of its own weight, and is mainly
made of graphite composite. Important elements placed in
here are: central computer, memory and communication
system. The processor and software ensure two-way
communication between the scientific instruments, the
memory core and the antenna, enabling the collection,
storage, and transmission of data to Earth and to the telescope.
The computer also controls the position of the telescope in
space, collecting data from gyroscopes and star finders, and
sends commands to the reaction wheels and thrusters.
Sunshield
To make observations of distant astronomical objects undisturbed by the radiation of the telescope itself, it will
operate at a very low temperature −223 ° C. The device is equipped with a shield to block light and heat from the
sun. It consists of five layers - each next one is cooler, and the vacuum between them will provide insulation.
The largest of the layers is facing the Sun, and the smallest is facing the mirror. They are arranged in such a way
that the Sun illuminates almost only the first and a small part of the second, while the mirror "sees" only the last
one and sometimes the one behind. The edges of the layers are further apart than their centers, which facilitates
the radiation of heat .The first one retains 90% of energy.
 Optics part

The optical system of the telescope consists of 4 mirrors, structural

elements and supporting subsystems. The first mirror is concave and the
second is convex. The third one eliminates astigmatism and flattens the
focal plane. Fourth, it ensures image creation, precise aiming and
stabilization. This mirror system was chosen due to the possibility of
spherical aberration. The main one is constructed from 18-position
devices arranged in a honeycomb. Together, they form 6.5 meters and
cover the earth's surface area of ​a circular mirror of approx. Before the
telescope at the table, it drills a drill, and its chapter to the list of major
tasks to each worker as one big master drill. On the run up the cams will
be used to make the wavelength error less than 150 nm. For this
purpose, each element of the mirror each has 6 actuators with a stroke of
10 nm.
Scientific instruments
The Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) is the structure that provides power, computing
resources, cooling, and the structural stability of the Webb telescope. It is made of graphite-epoxy
composite and attached to the underside of the telescope structure. The instrumentation includes 4
scientific instruments:

• NIRCam (Near InfraRed Camera) - this device has a double task: observing the sky in the infrared
range and checking the correct alignment of the main mirror elements

• NIRSpec (Near InfraRed Spectograph) is a multitasking spectrograph capable of measuring a

spectrum of up to 100 objects at one moment.

• MIRI (Mid-InfraRed Instrument) is a camera and spectograph operating in mid to long range and is
also equipped with conograph, which enable detection of planets

• The FGS helps the telescope hold its position in space and works by finding selected guide stars.
 The orbit

The telescope is placed in an orbit around the sun, near the L2 libration point of the Sun-Earth system about 1.5 million
km from the Earth, which ensures a fixed position of the device relative to the center of the Earth, always facing the Sun.
In order to avoid the shadow of the Earth and the Moon disturbing the operation of the solar cells, the telescope cannot be
positioned exactly at the point L2, but orbits it for about half a year, at a distance varying from 250,000 to 832,000 km
from it. During the mission, the orbit will be corrected by rocket engines.
The target of the mission
The James Webb Space Telescope has four key goals:
• to search for light from the first stars and galaxies that formed in the universe after the
Big Bang
• to study galaxy formation and evolution
• to understand star formation and planet formation
• to study planetary systems and the origins of life
These goals can be accomplished more effectively by observation in near-infrared light
rather than light in the visible part of the spectrum. For this reason, JWST's instruments
will not measure visible or ultraviolet light like the Hubble Telescope, but will have a much
greater capacity to perform infrared astronomy.
JWST may be used to gather information on the dimming light of star KIC 8462852, which
was discovered in 2015, and has some abnormal light-curve properties.
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