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The heat shield of the James Webb telescope was deployed on Tuesday, January 4. It is a crucial step in the mission of the space telescope which is to succeed Hubble, and which is on its way to a destination it should reach on January 24 and which is a million and a half kilometers from Earth.
For NASA, the American space agency, this is a major step that has just been taken. The heat shield is this gigantic sun visor measuring 14 by 20 meters, the role of which is to protect James Webb’s scientific instruments from heat. Their working temperature requires a minimum cold of -230 ° C.
Each of the five layers of this sunshade has been unfolded and stretched, one by one since Monday. And if this happens, it is because the shape of the telescope did not allow it to enter the rocket as it is. It was therefore folded on itself like an origami and its deployment was all the more perilous since it had not been possible to experience it before take off.
This is a difficult step, but it is not the only one and there are several critical maneuvers to accomplish before the space telescope can operate in a few months. In the coming days, and throughout the transit to his destination, the Lagrange 2 point, James Webb will have to unfold several mirrors. Everything must fit together perfectly with an accuracy of around ten thousandths of the thickness of a hair.
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