Hubble's Successor The James Webb Space Telescope Mirror and Sunshield Deployment Animation

[goomba008]

At first I thought the primary mirror would unfold in more steps because of the number of hexagonal segments. I'm glad the only operation is to bring the 2 folded sides into position. Looks simple enough.

[wingercalFORNIA1234]

one person was an american tax payer

[husnainanwaar1992]

when can we see the first pics

[ElmarBischof]

Somebody should design a space ship that could go that far out ... to be built just in case there would be the need to check up on this thing.

[wingercalFORNIA1234]

@ElmarBischof I Know. This is a hit or miss. I have faith that nasa can pull this off. They did it with the mars rovers Cassini and manny other missions. However that would be reassuring to have that space ship.

[goomba008]

@ElmarBischof That would cost many times more than the JWST itself

[Thegrcornholio]

I don't know much about space stuff but if thats coing to work as plannet it will be the most awsome scene that has happened to a man made opject in space.

[JustWonderingHowToDo]

Pfff... that are a lot of moving parts. Hope everything goes well and nothing gets stuck.

[morepl0x]

i hope the mirror isnt bonered like on hubble...

[hubbleISS]

This is a nice animation, its an interesting design. I read its scheduled to be deployed around 2014 & in the area of "L2" (not sure where that is).. My concern is, the shuttle is slated for *retirement* this or some time next year, so what is planned if something goes wrong initially and the telescope needs servicing ?

[sparcher]

@hubbleISS L2 is a Lagrangian Point (see wikipedia). It's one of the points in the sky where the gravitational pull of Earth and the Sun balance (if you consider the LPs of the Earth-Sun system).

They are relatively far from our planet, and the Space Shuttle cannot reach that far. So human servicing of this telescope is out of the question. It would need a spaceship yet to be designed, facing problems yet to be analyzed.

:)

[HELLdieee]

this is really niiiiice

[kaptugan]

stupid music videos has more than 300 million views but this great video has only 1000 view this is why we cant reach another galaxies.

[mari0ard]

I hope everything will work as planed when the deployment will have to take place!

[kaaabes]

@mari0ard

Thats my opinion too. I'm 16 and I think it's really interesting. But it's sad that nobody else is. These are the things that change our world, but nobody knows it. Come on, we're living in the 21 century. It should be general knowlege what a lightyear is or the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Maybe I'm just a crazy little guy but it's still my opinion