The thumbs up has begun. Because as the space telescope flies through the vast universe, thousands of parts have to be unfolded correctly and in the right order.

Last Saturday, on Christmas Day, the time had come: the launch of the long-awaited James Webb telescope. And with success. Because despite the many setbacks that the telescope has had to endure in recent years, the launch went smoothly. Now the thumbs up has begun. Because the coming period is an incredibly exciting one, in which thousands of parts have to be unfolded correctly, in the right order.

Components

The James Webb telescope consists of numerous parts. At launch, all those parts were neatly folded together. But as the telescope heads for its final destination, more and more elements will unfold. That is certainly not a runaway race. According to NASA, after launch, things can still go wrong at about 300 points, so that the telescope cannot function optimally.

In full swing

At the moment, the unfolding of the mighty space telescope – and thus the thumbs-up – is in full swing. The solar panels were already unfolded about thirty minutes after launch. These are now fully deployed and working properly. Yesterday the antennas followed. With the antennas, the space telescope will be able to transmit at least 28.6 gigabytes of scientific data to Earth twice a day. In addition, the temperature sensors on the telescope are also activated, allowing technicians to monitor the telescope’s thermal systems.

sun shield

More and more parts will follow in the coming period. In particular, unfolding the immense sun shield, which is about as long as a tennis court, is going to be exciting. The sun shield is of crucial importance for the functioning of the telescope. This shield is folded around the mirrors and instruments of the telescope like an umbrella and protects, among other things, the very sensitive infrared instruments – which must remain very cold to function – against the heat of the sun. The first steps for deploying the solar shield will be taken today.

mirrors

Another nerve-wracking moment will be the unfolding of the mirrors. The James Webb is equipped with both a main mirror (consisting of eighteen individual mirrors that act together as one large mirror) and a secondary mirror. On day ten of the mission, the secondary mirror will be ready. This mirror is one of the most important parts on the telescope and essential to the success of the mission. So nothing can go wrong during the unfolding. The mirror is located on three rods that run from the main mirror to the secondary mirror. This smaller, round mirror then plays a very important role in collecting the light from the main mirror. The idea is that the primary mirror collects the faint light from, among other things, the first and most distant galaxies. The secondary mirror then reflects the light collected by the primary mirror into James Webb’s onboard scientific instruments. It is important that the mirrors are installed correctly, because a deviation of more than 38 nanometers – one thousandth of the thickness of a human hair – can cause problems. The primary mirror unfolding begins on day twelve.


Watch in this video when all specific parts will be expanded.

In total, James Webb will take 29 days to get all his parts ready. And that while the telescope is also rapidly heading for its final destination: a place about 1.6 million kilometers from Earth. It promises to be a nerve-wracking period, in which a lot can still go wrong. But if the telescope manages to successfully complete its journey, it will formally conclude the most difficult and complex deployment sequence ever conducted in space.