ESA awards prime contract for instrument on board JWST (Forwarded)

European Space Agency
Science News Release SNR 17-2004
Paris, France 28 July 2004

ESA awards prime contract for instrument on board JWST

Following a competitive definition study, ESA has awarded EADS Astrium GmbH with
the contract to build the Near–Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) instrument on
board the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

NIRSpec is one of the three main instruments on board JWST, a collaborative
project between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space
Agency (CSA). Although radically different in design, JWST is considered as the
successor to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). With its sophisticated
instrumentation, a substantial part of which is provided by ESA, JWST will
mainly study the evolution of galaxies back in time to the birth of the very
first stars. Nonetheless, its capabilities also make JWST an effective
general-purpose observatory able to address a wide range of astrophysical
topics, such as the formation of galaxies, stars and planetary systems.

NIRSpec is a 200-kilogram spectrograph able to detect the radiation from the
most distant galaxies and can observe more than 100 objects simultaneously. It
will be able to operate at a temperature of 35 degrees Kelvin (-238 C) to
maximize its sensitivity. It will host state-of-the-art mirrors made of silicon
carbide (SiC), a material with excellent properties for stable optical
structures operating at cryogenic temperatures. The manufacturing process of the
SiC material is a unique European technology which is also used for ESA's
Herschel mission.

Other components of the instrument (such as filter and grating selection
mechanisms) are based on the heritage from ESA's Infrared Space Observatory
mission. The mechanisms for the selection of multi-object targets (micro-shutter
array) and the infrared detectors are all supported on an SiC optical bench and
are NASA's contribution to NIRSpec.

The contract between ESA and EADS Astrium GmbH for the NIRSpec implementation
phase will conclude in March 2009 with the delivery of the fully tested and
calibrated instrument ready for flight. The launch of JWST is scheduled for
mid-2011.

Note to editors

Besides EADS Astrium GmbH, the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille, France,
the Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy, Germany, EADS Astrium SAS and Boostec,
both of France, are part of the chosen core team in charge of the instrument
development.

The JWST observatory will consist of a deployable telescope (6.6 metres in
diameter) optimised for infrared wavelengths. It will carry three main
scientific instruments: a near-infrared camera (NIRCam), a near-infrared
spectrograph (NIRSpec, funded by ESA) and a combined mid-infrared
camera/spectrograph (MIRI, equally funded by ESA and NASA). In addition to
NIRSpec and MIRI, ESA is contributing to JWST by the provision of the Ariane 5
launcher, which will place the observatory in orbit around the second Lagrangian
Point, called 'L2', which is the anti-Sun equilibrium point, 1.5 million
kilometres behind Earth as viewed from the Sun.

For more information contact:

Science Programme Communication Service
European Space Agency
Tel: +31 71 565 3273
E-mail: ibruckne @ esa.int

ESA Media Relations Division
Paris, France
Tel: +33 1 5369 7155
Fax: +33 1 5369 7690

IMAGE CAPTION:
[http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/...lls_SK_sm2.jpg (341KB)]
Artist's impression of James Webb Space Telescope. Credits: Northrop Grumman