Nasa’s Marshall Space Flight Center has successfully completed a series of cryogenic tests on six beryllium mirror segments for the James Webb Space Telescope.
During testing, the mirrors were subjected to extreme temperatures dipping to -415°F to measure in extreme detail how the shape of the mirror changes as it cools.
With the measurements, the mirrors will be shipped to Tinsley Corp for final surface polishing at room temperature.
The space telescope has a total of 18 mirrors, each of which will be cryogenically tested twice to ensure that the mirror will maintain its shape in the space environment.
The test gauges how each mirror changes shape over a range of operational temperatures in space and will help predict how well the telescope will image infrared sources.
The next set of mirrors will arrive for tests at Nasa Marshall in August 2010.
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