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[POWERFUL MUSIC]

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The sunshield of the
James Webb Space Telescope

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is about the size
of a tennis court,

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like the one I'm
walking on right now.

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But try to find
the material Kapton

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that the sunshield is
made of that's big enough,

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well, you're going
to be out of luck.

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So we've come to
Huntsville, Alabama

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where the folks at ManTech
are building the sunshield.

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So, John, you are the
chief process engineer

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for this sunshield.

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Can you tell us a little
bit about what Kapton is?

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Yes, you have some of the
materials in your hand here.

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Kapton starts out
with this amber color.

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This is raw Kapton
as we'd call it.

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After that, the Kapton goes
through a coating process

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where we put the aluminum
metal coating on,

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as you can see it
here on one side.

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Then, we process
it again to have

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a coating on the other side.

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In the end, three
layers of the sunshield

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have the aluminum
coating on both sides.

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The remaining two layers will
have aluminum on one side

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with silicon coating
on the back side.

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You're not going to find
this off the shelf, right?

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You can't say, hey,
order some of this

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that's about the size
of a tennis court.

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Yeah, that's a real
problem because we buy it

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in 50-inch wide pieces.

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And it's got to be the
size of a tennis court.

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So we have to put
those pieces together.

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And we have a special
process that we do that.

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And that's over at our facility
just five minutes from here.

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So can we take a look?

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Yes, let's go.

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All right.

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Well, what we're cutting
here is individual pieces.

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And they will be
seamed together.

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There's at least 55 pieces
per layer of the sunshield.

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Right.

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And then they will match
the gold sides to each other

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to seam it.

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Now we've taken them over to the
thermal spot blending machine.

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The heat comes out of the tips
to fuse it together but not so

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much that it burns
through the bottom.

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So why do you use
a thermal weld?

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You're not exactly sewing
the sunshield together

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in the traditional sense.

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You want to maintain
the strength

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as much as possible
of the parent material

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but still have it stay
together, not have

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glues or anything else,
which adds weight.

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You know, now that I'm
looking at it closely,

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it kind of looks like one of
those potato chip bags, no?

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Yeah, like the one I
carry around in my pocket.

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[LAUGHS]

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How convenient.

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Yeah, well, you know I thought
y'all maybe have had some

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Doritos.

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But you always
looked on the inside.

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You notice how it
has a shiny surface?

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Yeah.

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Well, that's to protect the
insides from contamination.

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Because this is a
plastic material,

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it can't meet the requirements
of outer space environments.

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Kapton has the
aluminum coating on it,

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is made specifically
for space environments.

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We've been using it
for several decades.

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OK.

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You grab that end.

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And I'll grab this end.

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And we'll see if
we can make it--

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All right.

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[LAUGHS]

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[SNAPS APART]

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Oh, wow.

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So now you have a feel
for how much it takes.

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That's pretty strong.

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Yeah.

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That's one thousandths
of an inch thick.

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Oh, OK.

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So that's thinner than paper.

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Right.

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So now the machine's set up.

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It's ready to go.

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There's a certain rate
that it's pulling it.

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And it's steady.

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Now you don't expect to
see those kinds of forces

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on the sunshield?

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No, we're going--

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You're going way, far beyond--

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--way beyond what it's going
to be stretched at, yes.

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OK.

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This is good.

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This is a great seam.

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Look at this.

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31--

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[SNAPS APART]

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--almost 32 pounds.

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It far exceeds what JWST needs.

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This is great.

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Great.

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It's perfect.

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Well, thanks, John, for
showing us how you guys

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make the layers of the
sunshield so large.

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Sure, it's no problem.

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But putting together
the sunshield

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is much more than just
making it the right size.

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We'll talk more
about what else needs

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to be done on another
episode of Behind the Web.

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[POWERFUL MUSIC]

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