Dr. Mark Clampin
Observatory Project Scientist
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
The Optics of the James Webb Space Telescope
Dr. Clampin will address the design of the telescope optics, discuss the program to fabricate and test the optics and review on-orbit phasing and alignment.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a large, infrared-optimized space telescope. JWST's primary science goal is to detect and characterize the first galaxies. It will also study the assembly of galaxies, star formation, and the formation of evolution of planetary systems. The observatory has a large primary mirror 6.5 meters in diameter, designed to deliver high angular resolution and a large collecting area. The telescope optics are designed and fabricated to operate at the cryogenic temperatures (~40 k) required for an IR optimized telescope.
Since the observatory dimensions exceed the Ariane 5 fairing size, the observatory has to be stowed for launch and deployed following launch, so the primary mirror has a segmented mirror architecture to facilitate deployment after launch. The observatory is designed to achieve its cryogenic operating temperature via passive cooling, facilitated by a five-layer sunshield that keeps the telescope in the sun's shadow. The observatory will be launched into an L2 orbit that provides continuous science operations and a benign thermal environment for optical stability.
Dr. Clampin is the Principal Investigator of the Extrasolar Planetary Imaging Coronagraph (EPIC) Discovery Mission Concept and of the Transit Characterization Explorer (TRACER), a SMEX mission concept. Dr Clampin was a Co-Investigator and Detector Scientist for Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) science team; and he is a Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator on the Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer and ground-based investigations of debris disks.
Additional information on the James Webb Telescope is available at:
http://jwst.gsfc.nasa.gov/