THE CHALLENGE
When John Mather picked up his 2006 Nobel Prize in physics, his body was in Stockholm, but his mind was in outer space — focused on how to get better, sharper images of the further reaches of the universe. He was project scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope, an ambitious project that, if it worked, would be able to send better, clearer pictures back to Earth, from further out in space.
To do that, NASA would have to come up with a way to get a larger, lighter mirror for the telescope up into space. The solution was a deceptively simple one: folding.
THE SOLUTION
Through the Advanced Mirror System Demonstrator program, scientists created a hexagon-shaped, 6.5-meter-diameter mirror for the telescope. It’s made up of 18 separate segments, which fold up like the leaves of a drop-leaf table, then unfold and adjust in space. The telescope also features a tennis court-sized five-layer sunshield that reduces heat from the sun so that it can work without interference.
THE IMPACT
In addition to the astounding pictures that the James Webb Space Telescope has been able to send back to Earth since launching in 2021, the successful design, creation and deployment of folding, lightweight mirrors is a revolutionary technology.
Not only that, but the team was able to align them with incredible accuracy, to 1/10,000th the thickness of a human hair. The success of the design, and deployment, is a major leap forward in what can be done in space, and what we can learn about it.
