Elements of Webb: Beryllium Part 1, Ep 03

Have you heard of beryllium? It’s a rare lightweight metal used as the primary material on the Webb Telescope. This episode explores the reason this expensive metal is perfect for Webb. Special thanks to LA Gauge for hosting the media team.

Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Sophia Roberts (AIMM): Lead Lead Producer
Sophia Roberts (AIMM): Lead Writer
Sophia Roberts (AIMM): Editor
Sophia Roberts (AIMM): Videographer
Michael McClare (KBRwyle): Videographer
Michael McClare (KBRwyle): Editor
Michael P. Menzel (AIMM): Production Assistant
Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET): Lead Technical Support
Walt Feimer (KBRwyle): Lead Animator
Adriana Manrique Gutierrez (KBRwyle): Animator
Bailee DesRocher (USRA): Animator
Michael Lentz (KBRwyle): Animator
Jacquelyn DeMink (USRA): Animator
Jonathan North (KBRwyle): Animator
Scott Rogers: Lead Drone Operator
Greg Gregory: Subject Expert

[infestedalien]

Did I miss it out or wasn't it mentioned that beryllium is very toxic and should be worked with alot of precautions? It's a fascinating material :)

[nfx]

Fun fact - the stiffness to density ratio for most structural metals is about the same - steel, aluminum, titanium - all the same. For solid beryllium it is six times higher. Even 30% voided sintered beryllium is still 2.3x higher. So if you want to make something stiff and light, beryllium is your element.

[gsmontag]

I'm shocked that you didn't mention the high toxicity of beryllium.

[xjet]

I think we all know that the stiffest element is nobendium.

[defeatSpace]

Fun fact, the 3.3km-long large hadron collider shrinks by like 10 meters when they cool it down.

[Muonium]

All of that and they didn't mention probably the most important thing about Be: IT'S WILDLY *INSANELY TOXIC AND CARCINOGENIC* . I'm glad I'm not even in the same state as that machining facility let alone inside it. The osha legal airborne permissible exposure limit for Be dust in air is 2 MICROGRAMS per cubic meter and cases of chronic beryliosis have occurred at even those exposure levels. The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists suggests the limit should actually be FORTY TIMES LOWER than the current one. We're talking plutonium level toxicity here, kids. There should be an entire video on how the toxicity alone is dealt with.

[JulianMakes]

How can the cantilevers be the same weight and size? Are they 3d printed with an infill?

[raymondo]

I'm sure that JWST has a ton of fascinating aspects to it. The same probably applies to machining beryllium.
Can we get the actual engineers telling their story, instead of annoying PR people dumbing everything down to the level of cat videos?

[Nonononono_Ohno]

0:43 "It is the second lightest of all the metals" -- I'd give that a second thought, and have a look at the densities of Li, K, Na, Rb, Ca and Mg.

[denispol]

I could disegree with only the last sentence.
In case of JWST, the weight saving is less related to encreasing the rocket performance, but for increasing the total weight ratio of the onboard propellant, thus prolonging the mission.
Ariane 5 rocket could lift to L2 point almost X1.5 the weight of JWST, so the weight wasn't the biggest issue.

[wyskass]

Magnesium is the only other structural metal less dense than Beryllium, which has also been used in automotive racing wheels. But Beryllium has half the thermal expansion, double thermal conductivity, and 4x the strength of Magnesium.
For this interested in stuff like this.. I recommend looking into getting yourself some cubes of different pure elemental samples.
I've got 10, one inch square cubes of different metals to be able to feel and see them. Knowing facts about material properties is one thing, but it's quite enjoyable to be able to feel the heaviness of Tungsten and lightness of Magnesium.. One rarely handles those materials in life.
Just wanted to share that. Those mirrors are indeed very light..

[cennofranjo]

0:53 Beryllium is not 6 times "stiffer" than steel.
It has six times "specific stiffness" than steel i.e stiffness per density, so Beryllium will be six times stiffer than the same mass of steel.
It is infact 1.5 times stiffer than steel and one-fourth the density of steel.
Stiffness and specific stiffness are two different things, I wonder why these details go overlooked.

[TomGravesP]

Cool video, Sophia is awesome! I'm so excited for the upcoming launch and can't wait to see what those mirrors reflect into the science instruments

[wallypaige]

Awesome info. Love your program. Learning a lot. Thanks

[Ixions]

"My measurement technique needs some work." I'll say: I don't think you'll be able to measure the 10^-6 changes with that equipment...

[bearlemley]

Yea, I had Yamaha speakers in the 80’s made of beryllium

[jillvalentine]

Beryllium the same material used for High energy electromagnetic field generator vehicles. Finally an open use for it.

[twistedrootfarm]

Dam shes absolutely positively with out a doubt freaking gorgeous

[jansenart]

Well, having seen this, now I'm concerned that I'd drop something on a JWST mirror. I'm hundreds of miles away from it and that's the closest I'll ever be and I'm worried about dropping something on one of its mirrors.

[MarkPryor]

Beryllium is a supermetal. If it was cheaper and safer to machine it would probably replace carbon fiber and titanium in many instances. The JWST mirrors are incredible. And so is the CF structure that holds everything together. PPB stability.