The ten-billion-dollar gamble: How the JWST shields itself from the Sun
Physics World
DECEMBER 19, 2021
Because the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) operates in infrared light, stray thermal emissions from the Sun, Earth and even the spacecraft itself could cloud its vision. To keep them out, mission scientists designed an intricate, tennis-court sized sunshield that is quite unlike anything NASA has attempted to deploy in space before. The sunshield comprises five layers, or membranes, of an aluminium-coated polymer called Kapton that is widely used in space exploration thanks to its stability a
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