A Kickstarter campaign for reduced-scale models of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)!
JWST- a NASA-European Space Agency (ESA) collaboration.
We’ve used the prototypes at NASA-sponsored events around the country, demonstrating to large groups of adults and children the complex engineering that unfolds the Space Telescope after it releases from the ESA’s rocket fairing.
We’ve decided to make these models publicly available to educators, aerospace and astronomy enthusiasts, and anyone who has interest in the engineering and science that this US-EU collaboration is creating.
Please help us by backing our project with a small donation.
Thanks very much,
Link:
The main video is entertaining (those two are my colleagues!). They’ve reached young minds everywhere!
P.S.
More About It:
Eric Grosso
After graduation, I started both as an engineer working on parts of JWST, and as a mentor for a talented group of student interns working on the design and build of a 1/6 scale deployable model of JWST. This project led us to the above 1/20th and 1/40th scale models. Just to say it, I’ve never seen a university senior design project that compares to the 1/6th scale model that this group made, all while working as interns outside of their studies.
It realistically demonstrates the complex deployments JWST has and is properly scaled to the size of a medium sedan. Separated into two parts, it ships in secure crates at a weight of two tons. It has been to Johnson Space Center (JSC), Goddard Space flight Center (GSFC), Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). In October, it is being shipped to Kennedy Space Center (KSC) for nine months of public demonstration.
Each of the students who made that project great have since graduated as engineers. All but one are now my colleagues, and share the growing amount of engineering work we have on JWST.
Our Kickstarter is STEM outreach (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics). Please help by watching the three-minute video and spreading the word.
