Dozens of students created the replica from empty Starbucks coffee bags
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - In 2018, NASA plans to launch the James Webb Space Telescope, and this Saturday, May 14, the U.S. Space & Rocket Center will showcase a full-scale replica of the telescope’s sun shield. Dozens of students who helped create the replica from empty Starbucks coffee bags will be on hand for the reveal of the completed project, which takes place in the Davidson Center for Space Exploration at 10 a.m.
John Cranston, a senior materials and process engineer at NeXolve, which is building the real sun shield, conceived the Coffee Bag Sunshield Project more than two years ago as a way to engage students in science, engineering and team building. More than 300 students from Alabama, Georgia, Alaska, Oregon, Costa Rica and Germany worked on the project, piecing together the recycled coffee bags to create the 70-by-48-foot replica.
The James Webb Space Telescope is a large, infrared telescope that will provide a view of the universe never seen before. NASA, the Canadian Space Agency and the European Space Agency are partnering on the JWST program.
Media contact: Pat Ammons, pat.ammons@spacecamp.com; 256-721-5429
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