James Webb Telescope Wavefront Sensing and Control-The Great Unfolding : vTools Events

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James Webb Telescope Wavefront Sensing and Control-The Great Unfolding

#James #Webb #telescope

"Webb unfolded"

We will present the architecture of the Webb telescope that was developed to both achieve the desired science goals as well as be able to be launched into space. This necessitated a large deployable telescope that is compactly folded into the stowed launch configuration in the rocket fairing, and then unfolded to re-build the telescope in space. The design also provides the passive cooling of the telescope to be able to operate at the infrared wavelengths needed to enable the science. The accuracy of the alignments after deployment and shifts from the cool down was not quite to the alignment necessary for the desired performance.

The second part of the presentation will describe the development and use of the Wave Front Sensing and Control process that brought the telescope from the initial rough alignment after deployment and cool-down into the final alignment. This was done by efficiently using imagery from the science instruments without requiring a separate metrology system that would have added mass and complexity to the system.

The success of the Wave Front Sensing and Control process has resulted in the exquisite images and spectra that are unfolding daily.