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Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM

Monday, February 8, 2016 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium

Lee Feinberg

"Looking Back in Time: Building the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Optical Telescope Element"

ABSTRACT -- When it launches in 2018, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will look back in time at the earliest stars and galaxies forming in the universe. This talk will look back in time at the development of the JWST telescope. This will include a discussion of the design, technology development, mirror development, wavefront sensing and control algorithms, lightweight cryogenic deployable structure, pathfinder telescope, and integration and test program evolution and status. The talk will provide the engineering answers on why the mirrors are made of Beryllium, why there are 18 segments, where and how the mirrors were made, how the mirrors get aligned using the main science camera, and how the telescope is being tested. It will also look back in time at the many dedicated people all over the country who helped build it.

SPEAKER -- Lee Feinberg has been the NASA Optical Telescope Element Manager for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) for the last 14 years. Mr. Feinberg also serves as Senior Large Optics Systems Engineer in the Instrument Systems Technology Division (ISTD/Code 550) at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Mr. Feinberg was a member of the "Future of UVOIR Astronomy" committee looking at a large space telescope to follow on to JWST and has been a key contributor to the Advanced Telescope Large Aperture Segmented Telescope (ATLAST) architecture. In 2005, Mr. Feinberg chaired the NASA agency wide Advanced Telescope and Observatory capability roadmap committee. From 1998-2000, Lee served as the Assistant Chief for Technology in the Instrument Systems Technology Division at Goddard. Before that, Lee worked for 10 years on the optical correction and upgrade instruments for the Hubble Space Telescope and also spent five years in industry. Lee has an MS in Applied Physics from Johns Hopkins University and a BS in Optics from the University of Rochester. Lee is a Fellow of the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).


Engineering Colloquium home page: https://ecolloq.gsfc.nasa.gov