Boulder – Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. is nearing one of many milestones as it works on a 10-year, $200 million contract to build mirrors for the nation’s new space telescope.
When the James Webb Space Telescope launches in 2011, it will be equipped with 18 mirrors now being designed and built by the Boulder-based company.
The mirrors will be used to collect clues about how galaxies evolve.
The first mirror – a demonstration unit – will be shipped to a California-based subcontractor in June to be polished. That process will take about a year, and the mirror must pass several more hurdles before it is approved.
It leads the first six real mirrors by about six months. They will be delivered in 2008 to Northrop Grumman, which is assembling the telescope.
On a daily basis, 120 Ball employees are working on the telescope, which is named for NASA’s second administrator.
Ball also oversees another 120 people working on the mirrors at three subcontractors – Brush Wellman in Ohio, Axsys Technologies in Alabama and SSG/Tinsley Laboratories in California.
“The biggest technical challenge is being able to polish the surface of the mirrors to the requirements for James Webb,” Ball Aerospace senior program manager Mark Bergeland said.
SSG/Tinsley Laboratories will scan the mirror with a laser to search for imperfections, followed by a double-check by Ball – a lesson learned from experience with the Hubble Space Telescope.
The Hubble was launched on a 15-year mission in 1990, but within weeks a flaw in its primary mirror was discovered.
In 1993, astronauts in space corrected the flaw.
As Ball produces the first demonstration mirror, it will be “a pretty critical step to show that we have all the processes well understood,” Bergeland said.
The first six mirrors, already in progress, will be completed in 2008.
The telescope’s mission is to investigate space in greater detail than the Hubble. The James Webb will orbit nearly 1 million miles from Earth, and, unlike the Hubble, it is not designed to be serviced.
“It just means we have to get it right the first time,” Bergeland said. “Once it has been launched, there’s no way to correct it.”
Ball is part of a team led by Northrop Grumman Space Technology working on the telescope contract, awarded in 2002.
In Boulder, engineers and other Ball employees are designing and building the mirrors and assembling their support structure.
The 18 mirrors are made of beryllium, a lightweight, corrosion-resistant metallic element.
Each is about 4.3 feet across. They will come together to form one primary mirror.
The telescope will be able to observe in a few hours objects that takes the Hubble a week or more to record. That’s because the James Webb will have about six times the light-gathering capabilities of the Hubble.
After Ball finishes the mirrors, it will help with integration of the mirrors and project reviews until the launch date.
The project is one of eight Ball Aerospace contracts valued at more than $100 million.
Staff writer Kelly Yamanouchi can be reached at kyamanouchi@denverpost.com or 303-820-1488.
Facts about the James Webb Space Telescope
It will orbit 940,000 miles in space, balanced between the gravity of the sun and Earth.
It will take three months to reach its destination in space.
It is an infrared telescope.
It will be able to study objects 400 times more faint than those viewed with current ground- and space-based telescopes.
The primary mirror will measure about 21 feet in diameter.
It must be able to function at temperatures as low as minus-400 degrees Fahrenheit.
The sun shield – to cool the telescope and instruments – will be nearly the size of a tennis court.
The propulsion system will put it into orbit for at least five years.
It will gather clues about what the universe was like when it was between 1 million and a few billion years old.
Sources: Northrop Grumman Corp.; Ball Aerospace Corp.
