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by enceladus_ice 2576 days ago
I think a big amount of the complexity comes from the folded up sunshield. I remember it had torn during a test deployment last year.

Here is a quick animation showing the whole deployment process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpVz3UrSsE4
1 comments
nullwasamistake 2576 days ago
If it tears bad it's technically possible to send up a shield that floats near the telescope. There were some plans for that way back during the design phase if I remember right. Still wouldn't be cheap or easy
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mikepurvis 2576 days ago
It looks from the renders like the telescope has solar panels, antennas, etc on the sun/earth-side of the shield. Wouldn't sending a standalone shield screw that up as it would shade them?
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nullwasamistake 2576 days ago
Probably, although you could shape the shield not to.

It's still far more complex than just attaching the thing right to the telescope. And glancing starlight leaking in between the shield and the telescope could be a big problem.

I looked it up, the original proposal was actually to use a mobile shield to occlude far away stars for direct planet imaging. I think a similar approach could "fix" JWT but let's hope we never get there

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