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NIRSpec: the super eye for the Hubble successor JWST

* Infrared spectrometer can observe 100 galaxies simultaneously
* Extreme sensitivity at minus 238 degrees Celsius
* James Webb Space Telescope to be launched in 2013

Berlin, ILA 2006, 16 May 2006

When the US space administration NASA launches the successor to the legendary Hubble space telescope in 2013, an instrument from EADS Astrium will be on board. EADS space engineers in Ottobrunn and Friedrichshafen are currently building the Near Infrared Spectrograph NIRSpec for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). This instrument, which will cost about €70 million, is due to become the "super eye" of the new telescope.

The James Webb Space Telescope is a collaborative venture undertaken by the American, Canadian and European space organizations. Europe has a considerably larger share in JWST than it had in Hubble and the space activities of EADS are playing a central role within this European share. The present-day EADS Astrium had provided the Faint Object Camera (FOC) for Hubble, which was launched in 1990. For JWST, EADS Astrium is not only building the NIRSpec instrument but also participating in the construction of a second instrument, the mid-IR instrument MIRI. In addition, the JWST will be launched aboard the European launcher Ariane 5, a further EADS SPACE product.

For scientists in search of the origins of the universe the James Webb Space Telescope represents a quantum leap because it can peer deeper into space than Hubble. As light takes several billion years to reach the Earth from those distant regions of space, this ability to look into the depths of space also means a look into long-gone times. Hubble can look back to a time roughly one billion years after the "big bang". JWST will enable researchers to look back even further, to what happened about 300 million years after the big bang.

This is made possible by the considerably larger primary mirror of the new telescope, which will consist of 18 hexagonal individual segments, which will only unfold when the telescope is out in space. However, the instruments on board JWST will be much more sensitive than those integrated into the Hubble telescope.
The new telescope is to be equipped with three instruments:

* a Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) developed by NASA,
* a camera with spectrometer acting as a mid-IR instrument (MIRI), a joint development by American and European institutes with project management support from EADS Astrium in Stevenage (UK),
* and the NIRSpec built by EADS Astrium in Friedrichshafen and Ottobrunn (Germany).

NIRSpec will play a central role in looking back to the beginnings of the universe because this infrared spectrometer does not simply take pictures of distant celestial bodies but scientists can also use the instrument to analyze the composition of matter out in the depths of space. By positioning NIRSpec in space, for the first time an infrared spectrometer is being used that can observe 100 objects simultaneously.

The engineers of EADS Astrium at Ottobrunn and Friedrichshafen have been working on the new instrument for almost two years. The task is a challenging one with the spectrograph picking up even extremely weak radiation originating from the furthest galaxies. The instrument's dimensions are 1.85 m x 1.40 m x 1.00 m and it weighs approx 200 kg. It will mainly be made of silicon carbide (SiC), a very low-weight material with high-tech properties that is also extremely strong and temperature-resistant.

Not only is JWST as a whole a transatlantic joint project, but American and European engineers are also working hand in hand on the NIRSpec instrument. While European experts are responsible for the sophisticated optical design, for the silicon carbide components and the high-precision mechanisms, their American colleagues will provide the detector for the instrument and also the micro-shutter array (MSA). This involves micro-mechanics that enable parts of NIRSpec's "field of vision" to be masked over so that the instrument only detects the objects defined for observation.

The engineers at EADS Astrium plan to complete the instrument by 2009. Four years later, JWST is due to be launched from the European space centre at Kourou in French Guiana.

The telescope will be positioned at the so-called Lagrange point L2 at about 1.5 million kilometres from Earth, from where it will observe the universe for at least five years. At the Lagrange point L2, the gravitational forces of the Earth and the sun are equally balanced so that here the telescope rotates around the sun "in step" with the Earth and constantly remains in the half-shadow of the Earth. This is important because the sensitive instruments on board must always remain cool. The NIRSpec system, for example, has been designed for operation at temperatures down to –238 degrees Celsius. To keep the instrument temperatures low, the telescope will additionally be equipped with an extendable solar protection shield, which in its deployed state will be as large as a tennis court. Instruments that operate in the infrared range like NIRSpec rely on these low temperatures - otherwise heat radiation causes disruption, corrupting the measurements.

EADS Astrium is Europe's leading satellite specialist. Its activities range from complete systems for civil and military telecommunications and Earth observation satellites to scientific space programmes and satellite navigation with the associated avionics and equipment. EADS Astrium is a subsidiary of EADS SPACE, one of the leading global suppliers of space systems for civil and defence tasks. In 2005, EADS SPACE achieved revenues of €2.7 billion and had roughly 11,000 employees in France, Germany, Great Britain and Spain.

The EADS Group is a global leader in aerospace, defence and related services. In 2005, it generated revenues of €34.2 billion and employed a workforce of more than 113,000.

Contacts for the media
Rémi Roland
EADS SPACE (FR)
Tel.: +33 (0)1 42 24 27 34

Frédéric-Pierre Isoz
EADS SPACE (FR)
Tel.: +33 (0) 1 42 24 28 77

Jeremy Close
EADS SPACE (UK)
Tel.: +44 (0)1438 77 38 72

Mathias Pikelj
EADS SPACE (GER)
Tel.: +49 (0)7545 8 91 23