James Webb Telescope Has Sun Protection Problem

The mission of the new James Webb Telescope has been straight from a picture book since it was launched at Christmas, but now there were initial problems. Due to a sensor failure, the sun protection for the telescope could not be extended according to plan.

The reports the NASA in their reporting on the progress of the mission. Extending the sun protection is an important part – and a particularly tricky one. For protection, different foils have to be stretched in five layers, and something could easily go wrong. While NASA wanted to extend the sun protection on New Year’s Eve, a number of sensors that were supposed to monitor the installation of the sun protection failed.

Development was delayed

A little later, the successful expansion of the second Webb sun shield was reported. According to NASA, this is another important milestone. “Webb’s sun shield now resembles its full, kite-shaped shape in space,” NASA said. It took longer than expected to unfold today, but it was also because the surgical team acted cautiously after the initial difficulties and stuck to the protocols they had created for dealing with unforeseen situations.

The two middle cantilever arms are now locked in their final position. You will hold the sun protection membranes in place while the team moves on to the final phase of installing the sun protection: tensioning the foils. In the coming days, the team will separate each of the five layers of the sun shield and then tension them individually to bring them into their final, taut shape. This creates space between the membranes so that the heat can radiate outwards and each layer of the sun shield is cooler than the one below.