Having completed the launch and unfolding of the James Webb Space Telescope’s (JWST) mirror, the tedious task of aligning the mirror’s various segments has begun.

The massive mirror used by the telescope is comprised of 18 primary segments, as well as a secondary mirror. In order to move these parts, there are 126 actuators which push the segments into position slowly.

How slowly? Well, NASA is reporting that it will take at least 10 days and a combined three months to move all the mirrors. Getting the entire space telescope ready for work will take up to five months.

But even the moving of the mirrors into their final position is a going to take some time as project scientist for Webb science communications at the Space Telescope Science Institute, Alexandra Lockwood explains.

“In the next two weeks, we will move each of the 18 primary mirror segments, and the secondary mirror, out of their launch positions,” writes Lockwood.

“Then five months of commissioning will include 1) further cooling of the entire observatory, and of the Mid-Infrared Instrument in particular, 2) checking and then aligning the secondary and 18 mirror segments into a single coherent optical system, first with the NIRCam instrument and then with all instruments individually and in parallel, and 3) calibrating of each of the four instruments and their many scientific modes. The novelty and variety of science that this observatory can produce requires thousands of things to be checked ahead of time,” she adds.

To get an idea of just how long this process is we recommend watching the video embedded below in which mission control unfolds the primary mirror.

The reason for the slow, methodical deployment of the telescope’s various parts is not uncommon for space missions but the JWST has cost millions and taken literal decades to complete.

The other reason of course is because given the telescope will be 1.5 million kilometres away, one can’t exactly rush up to fix a broken panel.

[Source – NASA][Image – CC BY NC ND NASA HQ PHOTO]