A motor-driven tripod unfurled as planned Wednesday for the James Webb Space Telescope, lifting a 2.4-foot-wide secondary mirror into place to reflect gathered starlight back down to the equipment that will examine it.
The deployment of the telescope's sunshield on Monday and Tuesday was the most technically difficult part of Webb's initial activation, but putting the secondary mirror in place was as important to the mission's success.
The secondary mirror is one of the most essential components of the $14 billion observatories, measuring 0.77 meters (2.4 feet) wide and positioned on the tops of three long booms.
Engineers and technicians assemble the James Webb Space Telescope November 2, 2016 at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The telescope, designed to be a large space-based observatory optimized for infrared wavelengths, will be the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope.
NASA James Webb Space Telescope Successfully Unfolds Secondary Mirror
The secondary reflector tripod was deployed for the first time on Wednesday at 10:40 a.m. EST, Gizmodo said. The first stage was to unlock a set of launch locks that kept the telescope from being damaged during launch. The controllers then ordered the tripod to make a single modest movement, which it did at 11:08 a.m. after a brief confidence check. Controllers were pleased with the outcome and sent a directive to complete the transfer - releasing the secondary support structure.
The tripod gently shifted into place in a data-driven, real-time animated image of the telescope broadcast in NASA's live webcast of the deployment. The two bottom legs slid into position while the upper leg's single hinge unfurled as planned. At 11:20 a.m. EST, the support structure was fully extended, about 11 minutes after the full move instruction was sent. The secondary mirror was subsequently locked into position by controllers, which took 45 minutes.
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"Another banner day for JWST, in particular the secondary mirror deployment folks, you guys did a heck of a job," NASA project manager Bill Ochs told the mission operations team (via CBS News).
The operators will unpack a radiator on the rear of the telescope on Jan. 6, which will be used to dissipate heat from the scientific instruments. They'll then continue erecting the primary 21-foot (6.4 m) mirror, which had to be folded for launch due to its size.
What's Next For JWST?
After successfully deploying the secondary reflector tripod, the next step is to test the mirror to ensure it moves on command. If all goes according to plan, the crew will unfurl and fasten the two major mirror wings. The telescope and its scientific instruments will experience fast cooling now that the sunshield is in place while everything goes on. According to NASA, James Webb Space Telescope will take many weeks to attain stable temperatures.
Space.com said the deployment phase for the telescope was a cause of anxiety, with some calling the process nerve-wracking. Webb's scientific goal of seeing the earliest stars and galaxies generated in the cosmos in the first hundreds of millions of years after the Big Bang necessitated a massive and complicated observatory. As a result, the telescope is so large that it could not be launched without being folded up. The expedition pushed engineers and technology beyond their limits, resulting in a slew of brilliant engineering solutions. Those solutions, which see the telescope self-assemble like a transformer in space, have never been employed in space before. However, the lengthy testing effort, which took years to complete, is paying dividends.
Presently, the observatory is its route to its final destination, Lagrange point 2, 1.5 million kilometers away from Earth. When science activities start, the infrared telescope will receive light from the first galaxies and stars in the cosmos in around six months.
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