I '

An Overview of the
James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Project
Authors:
Phillip A. Sabelhaus, JWST Project Manager 301-286-5712 phil.sabelhausQnasa.pov
NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 443, Greenbelt, Md. 20771 Fax: 301-286-5558
Doug Campbell, Mark Clampin, John Decker, Matt Greenhouse, Alan Johns, Mike Menzel,
Robert Smith, Pam Sullivan, NASA GSFC.
ABSTRACT
The JWST project at the GSFC is responsible for the development, launch, operations and science data processing
for the James Webb Space Telescope. The JWST project is currently in phase B with its launch scheduled for
August 201 1. The project is a partnership between NASA, ESA and CSA. The U.S. JWST team is now fully in
place with the selection of Northrop Gnunman Space Technology (NGST) as the prime contractor for the
telescope and the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) as the mission operations and science data processing
lead. This paper will provide an overview of the current JWST architecture and mission status including
technology developments and risks.
Keywords: James Webb; Space Telescope; JWST; Hubble; HST

MISSION IN BRIEF
Primary Mirror
6.5 Meter Class, Segmented, Actively Controlled, 40' Kelvin nominal temperature

Wavelength Range
0.6 to 28 pm

Instruments
Near-Infrared Multi-Object Spectrometer
Near-Infrared Camera
Near-Infrared Tunable Filter Camera
Mid-Infrared CamedSpectrorneter

Payload Mass
Approximately 6,800 kg, 13,600 lbs. (Includes the payload adapter)

Launch Vehicle
Ariane V Expendable Launch Vehicle

Orbit
Lagrange Point 2 (1.5-million km or 940,000 miles from Earth)

Mission Length
5 years (1 0 year goal)

1. INTRODUCTION

The James Webb Space Telescope was conceived as a follow-on mission to the highly successful Hubble Space
Telescope to allow scientists to see the first generations of stars.
Equipped with a large l&segment, 6.5-meter primary mirror and a suite of revolutionary, infrared-sensing
cameras and spectrometers,JWST will allow us to see younger objects in space than is currently possible with
Hubble and help us analyze the miniscule specks of light that Hubble cannot detect. These nascent stars and
galaxies are so distant that by the time their light reaches us, it has stretched into the longer, redder wavelength
bands that are invisible to the human eye.

Consequently, no one has ever observed this cosmic “dark zone” before because they did not have the tools to do
so.But with this “first light machine,” we will finally see what the universe looked like when it was merely a .
fraction of its current age and size, when the first stars and galaxies were just beginning to take form and ignite. In
addition to conducting this unprecedented science, JWST will demonstrate revolutionary new technologies needed
for fhture Origins missions. For this reason, the National Academy of Science has ranked JWST as one of
NASA’s top science goals for this decade.

2. ADDITIONAL SCIENTIFIC G O A L S

In addition to observing these young galaxies, JWST will tackle four other major objectives over the course of its
5-10 year lifetime. It will help determine the geometry of the universe, its age and determine its ultimate fate. A
few years ago, two teams of astronomers rocked the scientificworld by finding evidence that the expansion of the
universe is acceleratingrather than slowing down because of the gravitational attraction between the matter within
it. Their observations seemed to confirm the existence of a new form of energy that causes the expansion of the
universe to accelerate. JWST is capable of studying this phenomenon.

Although mission engineers designed the spacccraft to primarily peer at the farthest reaches of the universe, it will
also look closer to home. With JWST, scientists can study the history of the Milky Way and its nearby neighbors
by studying the old stars and star remnants that formed over the galaxy’s lifetime. Astronomers will use JWST to
study star birth and formation. Its infrared sensors can pierce the dust and gas that surround stellar nurseries and
reveal the processes that dictate the mass and composition of stars, as well as the production ofheavy elements.
And last, NASA designed JWST to study the origin and evolution of planetary systems like our own. JWST may
be able to directly detect large, Jupiter-sized planets around nearby stars. Although we cannot image smaller
planets directly, JWST's high resolution will make it possible to see how planetary systemsbehave especially
when they are in the process of formation, which will give us a more accurate picture of their evolution.

JWST's Four Scientific Themes

0 The First Light After the Big Bang
0 The Assembly of Galaxies
0 Birth of Stars and Planetary Systems
Planetary Systems and the Origins of Life

Technological Challenges At-A-Glance

1. A 6-meter-class, lightweight, cryogenic deployable, actively controlled with diffraction limited performance
at a 2 micron wavelength.
2. A tennis court-sized deployable sunshield to passively cool the telescope and instruments to 40 degrees
Kelvin providing sensitivity to extremely faint inbred photons.
3. A highly capable Observatory that weighs 6,800 kg, including the telescope and instruments.
4. Low-noise, large-area infiared detectors.
5. A cryogenic programmable slit mask for multi-object spectroscopy.

3. ORBITAL CONSIDERATIONS

JWST's orbit -at the second Lagrange Point (L2), located 1.5-million km (940,000 miles) from the Earth in the
anti-Sun direction is perfect for this mission. The L2 orbit offers a thermally stable environment. At the L2 point,
JWST will be in orbit around the Sun rather than the Earth, as it is with HST.This arrangement will allow JWST
to live in the shadow of a giant sunshield, which deploys on orbit. In this shadow, the JWST can passively cool
the instruments to below 40" Kelvin (about 400" below zero Fahrenheit) and the telescope optics to below 50"
Kelvin. Although passive cooling represents an old concept, NASA has never flown a mission before that uses
this method to reach these extreme temperatures. (As a reference, WMAP (at L2) uses passive cooling to reach
about 95" Kelvin)

The Sun, Earth and Moon will always be on the

same side of the telescope making it easier for
the sunshield to keep light and heat away from
the telescope cooling it to the very low
temperatures required to prevent the telescope's
own heat radiation from exceeding the
brightness of the distant astronomical objects.

Figure 2. The Second LaGrange Point

 SWST will remain in this orbit due to the
gravitational pull on L2 and occasional
station-keepingmaneuvers.

Figure 3. JWST Launch Trajectory

4. CRYOGENIC COOLING

To observe the farthest reaches of the universe, temperature is an essential consideration. JWST cannot achieve
the needed sensitivity in the near- to mid-infrared spectrum if the telescope were not cooled to at least -40'
Kelvin. At warmer temperatures the instrument sensors would be swamped by inhred light emitted by the
telescope itself.
5. SUNSHIELD TECHNOLOGY

JWST will passively cool to its cryogenic operating temperature by using a system of radiators shaded by the
highly efficient tennis court sized sunshield shown in Figure 4. Separating and thermally isolating the warm
spacecraft components to the sun side of the shield via a deployable isolation tower further enhance passive
cooling. Power dissipation estimates on the cryogenic side of the observatory are judiciously monitored and
allocations are stringently held to less than 300 milli-Watts. The mid-Infrared instrument will utilize a mechanical
cooler to further cool its detectors to less than 7 Kelvin.

Figure 4. JWST SunshieldConfiguration

 6. COLD MIRRORS AND MOTORS

Figure 5. JWST Optical Telescope Element

One of the challenges for the JWST team is to design and manufacture lightweight mirrors and an active mirror
control system to enable the best possible scientific return by providing diffraction limited performance for all
wavelengths greater than 2 microns.

Even more technologicallydemanding than the deployable sunshield is JWST’s segmented, 6.5-meter
lightweight, deployable mirror, which will do what no other space-borne mirror has done. It will use a
combination of small, ultra-precise actuators and sophisticated computer algorithms to align and properly figure
the mirror. Developing such a technology is no small task -especially considering the added challenge of
making JWST’s primary mirror with six times the collecting area of Hubble’s with more than a factor of 9 lower
areal density (kg/m2). In contrast, Hubble’s 2.4-meter primary mirror is a single piece of polished glass weighing
180 kg per square meter. Although the segmented approach using lightweight materials accomplishes the
performance objectives and allows the telescope to fit inside a commercial rocket fairing, it complicates the task
of making sure the mirror achieves and holds its proper shape.

JWST’s architecture requires that the optical system wavefront errors be measured and then corrected while the
spacecraft is on orbit. A perfect mirror is not required at launch, and any changes due to stress as a result of rocket
vibrations, or the deployment and the cooldown to the extremely cold operating temperature can be corrected.
The Hubble’s well-known spherical aberration has given the scientificcommunity a great deal of experience in
determining an optical system’s wavefront error using images in a process called phase diverse phase retrieval.
Image-based phase retrieval is the technique of choice for JWST, and is the front half of the full wavefront
sensing and control process.

Once in orbit, JWST will take several images of stars as part of wavefront error sensing that begins the process of
aligning the mirrors. With those images, ground controllers will use sophisticated computer algorithms to
determine the level of distortion in the mirror segments caused by the super-cold temperatures, misalignments and
fabrication errors. Ground controllers will correct the calculated distortion by activating computer-controlled
mechanical actuators that move and deform the mirror segments until they are perfectly aligned and shaped. Their
goal is to reduce the RMS magnitude of these distortions to no more than 0.15 microns, 300 times smaller than
the width of a human hair (for reference, HST’s distortion - The outer edge of the mirror was ground too flat by a ,

depth Of 4 microns (roughly equal to one fiftieth the thickness of a human hair). These actuators need to work in
extremely cold temperatures, which adds another level of diligence to the engineering task. This on-orbit
wavefront sensing and control now under development at NASA and the prime contractor will undoubtedly find
applications in other NASA and Defense Department missions.

Northrop Grumman has chosen the beryllium-based mirror technology made by Ball Aerospace & Technologies
Corporation as the primary mirror material for JWST.

1.3 18mpoint-to-point light-weighted beryllium semi-

rigid mirror

13.4 kgIn-2 beryllium substrate areal density

19.3kdm2 areal density for mirror system including

mirror, reaction structure, flexures, actuators

Figure 6. JWST Hexagonal Mirror Segment

A L

L ' A

Figure 7.Backside of Primary Mirror Segment Assembly

Ball Aerospace of Boulder, Colorado will develop the semi-rigid primary mirror design they pioneered in
NASA's Advanced Mirror System Development (AMSD) program. With its seven actuators, this mirror design
has enough degrees of freedom to provide on-orbit correction. In addition to AMSD, a beryllium primary mirror is
in use on the Spitzer Space Telescope ((formerly known as the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF)),
providing NASA flight experience with meter-sized beryllium mirrors.

7. INTEGRATED SCIENCE INSTRUMENT MODULE

The telescope will carry four instruments and an ultra-precise fine guidance sensor - the Near Infrared Camera
(NIRCam), the Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec), the Tunable Filter near-infrared camera (FGS-TF), the
Mid Infrared Instrument (MIRI), and the Fine Guidance Sensor. The Near Infrared Camer? (NIRCam)
development team is led by the University of Arizona. This instrument will be JWST's primary imager in the
wavelength range of 0.6 to 5 microns. Required by many of the core science goals, the instrument is particularly
well suited for detecting the first light-emittingobjects that formed after the Big Bang. It is designed for multi-
filter broad-band photometry and will be equipped with a coronagraph, which will enable imagery of debris disks,
like our own Kuiper Belt, and massive giant planets around nearby stars. The NIRCam also serves as the
wavefront sensor for the JWST telescope assembly. Image data collected by NIRCam at regular intervals will be
used to diagnose the telescope's wavefront errors and update the positions of the mirror actuators. NIRCam is
currently in Phase C with fabrication of most components for the Engineering Test Unit well underway.
The multi-object Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) is provided by the European Space Agency. This
instrument will serve as the principal multi-object spectrograph in the 0.6- to 5-micron wavelength range. Its
ability to obtain simultaneous spectra of more than 100 objects in a 9-square arc-minute field of view at spectral
resolutions of hlM = 100,1000, and 3000 enables high survey efficiency for a variety of compact sources
including primordial galaxies.
The Tunable Filter camera, provided by the Canadian Space Agency, enables extended objects at any redshift to
be imaged with diffraction limited angular resolution at UAh = 100. This instrument is critical for emission line
surveys of primordial galaxies and detailed morphological studies of galaxy nuclei and Galactic nebulae.

The Mid Infi-ared Instrument, provided by an international collaboration of agencies led by the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory and the United Kingdom Advanced Technology Center, will provide broad-band imaging and integral
field spectroscopy over the 5 to 28 micron spectrum. This instrument will study the creation of the first heavy
elements and will reveal the evolutionary state of high redshift galaxies. It is uniquely capable of studying the
very early stages of star and planet formation, in regions where all visible light is blocked by dust and most of the
emission is radiated at mid-infrared wavelengths.

The Fine Guidance Sensor, also provided by the Canadian Space Agency, will ensure the telescope can precisely
point to a few milli-arcseconds and find very faint guide stars for at least 95% of all desirable scientific
observations.

JWST's ISIM features two groundbreaking technologies-large-format detectors for all three instruments and a
programmable spectrometer aperture mask (micro shutters) for the Near-Infrared Spectrograph. They are vital for
carrying out the projects rigorous scientific program

All four instrumentsand the guider are packed into a special module
that will form the heart of JWST.This Integrated Science Instrument
Module (ISM) provides the structure, thermal environment, control
electronics and data handling for the science instruments and fine-
guidance sensor.
'.a4
Figure 8. Integrated Science Instmment Module (ISIM) (sunshade omitted)
 12. MISSION OPERATIONS

Mission operations are conducted through the JWST ground system shown in Figure 15, which includes the Deep
Space Network (DSN), NASA Integrated Services Network (NISN), Goddard Space Flight Center's Flight
Dynamics Facility (FDF) and the Science and Operations Center (S&OC). The S&OC is responsible for
operating the Observatory, and is being developed and staffed by the Space Telescope Science Institute. The
S&OC enables the planning and execution of scientific investigations. The remainder of the ground segment
enables tracking and communications, housekeeping, and maintenance of the Observatory.

The JWST architecture has driven the design of the ground system architecture. JWST is designed to operate
autonomously on orbit at the L2 for extended periods of time through the incorporation of event-driven, rather
than time-driven, activity management. This will permit 8-hour per day, 5-day per week staffing of the S&OC for
most perations.

ST Scl

Figure 15. JWST Mission Operations Block Diagram

13. CONCLUSION

JWST is the National Academy of Science's top investment priority for NASA Space Astronomy this decade. It is
a model of international cooperation and collaboration and it continues to thrive under a philosophy that demands
clear, centralized management and strong systems engineering. As of today, the team has proven all major
technologies, including the viability of lightweight active optics and image-based wavefront sensing and control.
In partnership with Northrop Grumman as the prime contractor, the JWST project is continuing to achieve all
milestones toward the transition to phase C development. In the end, JWST will touch and inspire the lives of
thousands of scientists and engineers from across the United States, Canada and Europe, to say nothing of the
astronomers worldwide, whose discoveries using JWST may well change the way we see ourselves and our place
in the universe.
 observatory performance and programmatics
Systems engineering and interfaces
Spacecraft, Sunshield, and deployables
Observatory integration and test
Support ground segment and operations
Optical Telescope Element (OTE) optical
design and optics
Beryllium mirror segment development and
cryogenic testing
Wavefront Sensing & Control (WFS&C)
design and algorithms
OTE and Observatory AI&T support
ITT OTE ground AI&T
Plum Brook test configuration and interfaces

Telescope backplane and Secondary Mirror

Telescope Structure (SM) support structure design and build

- NIRSpec Instrument
ESA/European Consortium - MIRI OBA (Optical Bench Assembly) and instrument integration & test
- Ariane 5 launch vehicle
CSA - FGS with tunable filter modules
University of Arizona - NIRCam instrument (subcontracted to Lockheed-Martin ATC)
- MIRI management and systems engineering team lead, flight software,
FPA/FPE and dewar
JPL - Wave Front Sensing and Control (WFS&C) technology development
and oversight
MSFC - Mirror technology development and testing
- Environmental analysis
AMES - Detector technology development

International partnering is an important way for NASA to keep down costs for this order-of-magnitude increase in
scientific capability over that of Hubble. The European Space Agency (ESA) is contributing about $230 million
Euro for a 15 percent observing share and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) will contribute more than $50
million for its roughly 5 percent share.
In addition to its partnerships with Europe and Canada, NASA has reli.ed on the expertise of its field centers,
including the Goddard Space Flight Center, Ames Research Center, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the
Marshall Space Flight Center, and several of the Department of Energy's national laboratories.The Space
Telescope Science Institute, the same organization that now operates Hubble, will operate JWST's Science and
Operations Center. Universities and a variety of industry groups scattered across the country are also involved in
one form or another with the JWST program.

The Department of Defense (DoD) contributed to the technology development effort. It helped to fund the joint
advanced mirror technology-development (AMSD) program that led to the development of semi-rigid beryllium
mirrors chosen for JWST.
 ---
J JiR.g-

Figure 14. JWST Observatory Showing Responsibilitiesof Team Members

\

11. PARTNERSHIPS and TEAM MEMBERS

The table below shows the various JWST team members and their roles and responsibilities as also shown in
Figure 14.

Overall project management

Overall systems engineering
Leadership of Science Working Group (SWG)
GSFC ISIM engineering, manufacturing and integration and test
Specific Engineering Directorate responsibilities; ISIM Command and Data Handling
(IC&DH) with software, ISIM Structure, Micro Shutter Assembly (MSA) and
electronics with software and NIRSpec detectors, detector electronics, software and
harness
Observatory systems engineering
NGST - Observatory (OTE, spacecraft and ISIM) integration and test
- OTE, spacecraft bus and sunshield design, manufacturing, integration and test
Launch site processing, observatory launch and commissioning
Ground systems development
STScI - Flight and science operations
- Optics and instrument support
 10. OBSERVATORY SPACECRAFT BUS
The spacecraft (Figure 13) provides the housekeeping function of the Observatory. It has a 471 Gigabits solid-
state recorder that stores all science data as well as engineering data that is collected in between and during the
daily contacts with the ground station. Two star trackers (an additional one for redundancy) are used to point the
Observatory toward the science target prior to guide star acquisition, and they provide roll stability about the
telescope line of sight (V1 axis.) Six reaction wheels (2 are redundant) are mounted on isolators near the center of
gravity of the bus to reduce disturbances to the Observatory. These reaction wheels offload the fine steering
control (operation from a 16 Hz update from the FGS) to maintain the fine steering mirror near its central position
to limit differential distortion induced blurring onto the target star. Two fixed solar arrays canted toward the sun
when the Observatory is pointed in the middle of its FOR provide power. The downlink operates at Ka band and
has a selectable rate of 7, 14 or 28 h4bps. A pair of omni directional antennas (at S-band) provide near
hemispherical coverage for emergency communications.
detectors exhibit maximum sensitivity at a temperature of -7 K and will be cooled below the nominal 40 K ISIM
temperature by a mechanical cryo-cooler.

9. MICROSHUTTERS

Multi-object spectroscopy using JWST’s Near-Infrared Spectrometer represents another quantum leap in space-
b.ased astronomy. To characterize the nature of the early universe, JWST will have to take spectral data of many
different targets simultaneously. The NIRSpec instrument utilizes a Micro-Shutter Array (MSA) for aperture
control. The MSA, shown in Figures 10-12, is a rectangular array of microscopic (-100 x 300 microns)
magnetically controlled, transmissive shutters, which can be latched open or closed under computer control,
allowing the production of any required input slit pattern for use in a manner similar to a ground-base punch-plate
spectrograph.

The enabling technology for this aperture control comes from a new area of engineering called Micro Electrical
Mechanical Systems (MEMS) in which techniques originally developed for fabrication of integrated electronic
circuits are applied to fabrication of microscopic machines. JWST conducted an extensive technology
development program in which three teams from within NASA and Sandia National Laboratory competed to
develop a flight qualifiedly MEMS aperture control solution for JWST multi-object spectroscopy. Candidate
designs involved both micro-mirrors and micro-shutters. The micro-shutter approach was selected for flight and is
being developed by GSFC for delivery to the ESA NIRSpec team.

Figure 10. Electron micrograph of a prototype JWST micro-shutterarray. Light shields that mask gaps around the periphery of
each fihu* are removed for clarity.

Figure 1 1. 64 X 128 MSA array electrically addressid to display ‘GSFC’

Figure 12. Close up of 100 X 200 micron pixel size with light shields attached
 I NIRCam I\

Figure 9. ISIM. (Enclosure removed for clarity)

8. DETECTORS

More than any other component, the detector determines the sensitivity of an instrument. Its role is to record the
position, intensity and, by means of filters and spectrographs, the wavelength of as much of the incident radiation
as possible. Because JWST’s prime targets are intrinsically faint, with fluxes as low as a single photon arriving
every second, its detectors must be more sensitive than any detector ever flown. Furthermore, because the
detectable first star-forming regions in the universe are very rare, JWST must be able to image large areas of the
sky, and JWST’s detector assemblies must be large mosaic arrangements of up to 16 million pixels per focal plane
array (FPA).

JWST’s near-infrared instruments have selected Rockwell HAWAII-2RG (H2RG) mercury-cadmium-telluride

(HgCdTe) detectors. These detectors, which represent the state-of-the-art in this wavelength regime, are the fruit
of a highly successful JWST’s Phase-A technology development program. Under this program, Rockwell
Scientific and Raytheon Vision Systems developed 2048 x 2048 sensor chip assemblies (SCAs) and prototype 16
Mpixel FPAs. JWST candidate SCAs were tested at purpose built vendor affiliated labs at the University of
Hawaii and University of Rochester respectively, and independently at the Space Telescope Science Institute.
Upon completion of the technology development program, NIRCam selected Rockwell H2RG detectors and the
other near-infrared instruments, including the NIRSpec and Fine Guidance Sensors, selected H2RG detectors
shortly thereafter.

The near-infrared detectors will be controlled by adjacent, cryogenic, application-specific integrated circuits
(ASKS) also developed by Rockwell Scientific. These cryo-ASICs will provide clock and bias signals to the
detectors and perform analog-to-digital conversion of the detector outputs. The cryo-ASICs enable transmission
of JWST’s science data along a purely digital link from the observatory’s cryogenic region to the instruments’
warm electronics four meters away.

Following Spitzer Space Telescope heritage, the mid-infrared instrument, MIRI, has selected arsenic-doped
silicon (Si:As) detectors developed by Raytheon Vision Systems. JWST also conducted a pre-phase A
development program for this technology to grow the Spitzer era 256 x 256 pixel format to 1024 x 1024. These