File:Meet Adam Carpenter Mechanical Integration Engineer (40519020161).jpg

Adam Carpenter, a mechanical integration engineer with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, stands in front of the specially designed shipping container called STTARS, which carries Webb from one location to another.

Carpenter’s involvement with STTARS — the Space Telescope Transporter for Air, Road and Sea — has required he work many long and often cold nights seeing the telescope safely from cleanroom to cleanroom. For long-distance overland journeys, the STTARS container is loaded aboard a specially modified U.S. Military C5 aircraft.

In addition to STTARS, Carpenter has worked on several major subsystems of the telescope, including the <a href="https://jwst.nasa.gov/isim.html" rel="nofollow">integrated science instrument module (ISIM)</a>, the <a href="https://jwst.nasa.gov/ote.html" rel="nofollow">optical telescope element (OTE)</a>, and the combined ISIM and OTE (known as OTIS). He is also involved with launch site operations in Kourou, French Guiana. He said he will be part of the team there designated to “roll out the red carpet” for Webb — that is, make sure the storage facilities and launch site are ready for the telescope’s arrival.

Carpenter’s said his work with Webb over the years has been challenging, but the challenge is what makes the work so fulfilling. “I think that’s my favorite part of the job — being presented with a challenge and being able to work a solution, being able to get into a room with a whole host of other engineers ... and come up with a solution that’s going to work,” he explained.