A campaign was launched for reduced scale models of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) collaboration. The prototypes have been used 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 rocket fairing.
The models were made publicly available to educators, aerospace and astronomy enthusiasts, and anyone interested in the engineering and science that this US and EU collaboration is creating.
The 1/6 scale deployable model realistically demonstrates the complex deployments of JWST 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 travelled to the Johnson Space Center, the Goddard Space Flight Center and the Marshall Space Flight Center, and was shipped to the Kennedy Space Center for nine months of public demonstration.
The project is STEM outreach, covering science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Explore the telescope itself at the James Webb Space Telescope mission site.