James Webb Space Telescope is a boondoggle

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is going to
take mostly infrared pictures of the universe.
To reduce unwanted infrared light coming from
the Sun, JWST will be launched into the Sun-Earth
L2 point, which is 1.5 million kilometers away
from the Earth. This far out location was
justified by the shade made by the Earth. A quick
calculation proves that the L2 point is *not*
in the Earth's shade! The complete shade, called
umbra, extends only to a distance of 1.39 million
kilometers beyond the Earth, i.e., 110,000 km
short. The L2 point is in partial shade called
penumbra.

If JWST is launched into the L2 point, it will
sizzle in the sunlight almost as much as the
Hubble Space Telescope. If something goes wrong
with the JWST, the telescope will be difficult to
repair because the L2 point is far away from the
Earth. Worse yet, JWST has a monolithic design
not suitable for telerobotic repair or upgrade.
My conclusion: James Webb Space Telescope
should be redesigned to improve its thermal
insulation and compatibility with telerobots,
and then launched into low Earth orbit.