James Webb Space Telescope deployed all hexagonal mirror pieces, says NASA

NASA says it has completed the deployment of all of the James Webb Space Telescope’s hexagonal mirror segments. The delicate operation to move the space observatory’s $10 billion (approximately 74,500 crore) space observatory’s individual mirror segments away from their launch sites took nearly a week, during which the engines performed more than one million revolutions. The space agency said engineers sent commands to small motors, known as actuators, that slowly moved each piece about half the length of a paper clip so that each of them was positioned according to the way that they have enough space to align the mirror. Engineers have begun a month-long process to bring the telescope into focus.

The main mirror of James Webb The telescope consists of 18 hexagonal segments of gilded beryllium metal. When all segments are aligned, the mirror is 21 feet and 4 inches in diameter. The main mirror is much larger when compared to Hubble Space Telescope, was launched 30 years ago. The more powerful James Webb is set to replace Hubble as soon as its deployment is complete.

“The mirror deployment team moved step-by-step through all 132 actuators located on the back of the primary and secondary mirror segments. Erin Wolf, Webb program manager at Ball Aerospace, the Colorado-based company that designs and builds the telescope’s advanced optical technology and lightweight mirror system. Blog post.

To better understand how these motors or actuators work, see NASA previously shared a GIF, explaining the function.

NASA also shared an “interesting fact” about Twitter. It says the beryllium metal used in the main mirror’s 18 hexagonal segments is six times harder than steel. “But even against the power of beryllium, the motors can actually shape the curvature of each mirror segment individually,” it added.

18 segments were folded together to fit inside an Ariane 5 rocket that carried the telescope into space after Released on December 25th. The telescope is an international collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.