Fabrication of the Mirrors of the James Webb Space Telescope
Dec 22, 2022
Holger Glatzel
Fabrication of the Mirrors of the James Webb Space Telescope

JWST's primary aim is to shed light on our cosmic origins: it will observe the Universe's first galaxies, reveal the birth of stars and planets, and look for exoplanets with the potential for life.

The Webb telescope is NASA's most ambitious and most challenging space telescope mission; over a development time of 20 years the program accumulated $10 Billion of cost.
In the early phases of the mission NASA’s on-going risk assessment found the fabrication of the mirrors to carry the highest risk for the mission.

The objective of this presentation is to show - on a top level - how JWST’s primary aim impacted the architecture of the telescope and consequently the mirror fabrication.

Chair of the Day Patra Sevastiades