The sunshield layers are also coated with aluminum and doped-silicon for their optical properties and longevity in the space environment. On Earth, Kapton polyimide film can be used in a variety of electrical and electronic insulation applications. It does not melt or burn at the highest of these temperatures.
#MINUS ONE MAHADEWI PLUS#
It has high heat-resistance and remains stable across a wide range of temperatures from minus 269 to plus 400 Celsius (minus 452 to plus 752 degrees Fahrenheit). Kapton is a polyimide film that was developed by DuPont in the late 1960s. The sunshield is a critical part of the Webb telescope because the infrared cameras and instruments aboard must be kept very cold and out of the sun's heat and light to function properly. Each layer is coated with aluminum, and the sun-facing side of the two hottest layers (designated Layer 1 and Layer 2) also have a "doped-silicon" (or treated silicon) coating to reflect the sun's heat back into space. The sunshield consists of five layers of a material called Kapton. Some of the things that make the sunshield unique are its strong yet ultra-thin material, special kite-like shape, and the special role of its layers. NASA and its industry partners developed a lightweight, robust way to protect the telescope and mirrors from the sun's infrared radiation in the material that makes up the sunshield. There are even special seams and reinforcements to limit meteorite damage. Each layer is made from a unique composite material, each has a specific thickness and size, and they must be precisely separated in space. The shiny silver material of the five-layer sunshield is a complex and innovative feat of material science and engineering. 29, 2016 to Northrop Grumman Corporation's Space Park facility in Redondo Beach. The fifth and final layer was delivered on Sept. Each successive layer of the sunshield, made of kapton, is cooler than the one below. The layers work together to reduce the temperatures between the hot and cold sides of the observatory by approximately 570 degrees Fahrenheit. It's able to be positioned this way because JWST will be orbiting the Sun 1.5 million kilometers away from (but approximately in line with) the Earth. This sunshield will always be between the Sun/Earth/Moon and the telescope. To protect the telescope from external sources of light and heat (like the Sun, Earth, and Moon) as well as from heat emitted by the observatory itself, Webb has a 5-layer, tennis court-sized sunshield that acts like a parasol providing shade. In order to be able to detect those faint heat signals, the telescope itself must be kept extremely cold. The James Webb Space Telescope will observe primarily the infrared light from faint and very distant objects. The telescope operates under 50K (~-370F) Photo: Northrop Grumman The five-layer sunshield keeps sunlight from interfering with the sensitive telescope instruments. The sunshield separates the observatory into a warm, sun-facing side (thermal models show the max temperature of the outermost layer is 383K or approximately 230 degrees F), and a cold side (with the coldest layer having a modeled minimum temp of 36K or around -394 degrees F).