1 00:00:13,790 --> 00:00:17,300 Mary Estacion/Reporter: Mirrors on a telescope are often coated with some kind of metal in 2 00:00:17,300 --> 00:00:20,380 order to reflect as much light as possible. 3 00:00:20,380 --> 00:00:25,060 Now the kind of metal depends upon the type of light the tele- scope is looking at. 4 00:00:25,060 --> 00:00:30,290 The James Webb Space Telescope is looking at infrared light and for that, gold is the 5 00:00:30,290 --> 00:00:31,700 ideal choice. 6 00:00:31,700 --> 00:00:36,180 To find out how the gold is put onto the mirrors of the James Webb Space Telescope, we're here 7 00:00:36,180 --> 00:00:39,140 at Quantum Coating in Moorestown New Jersey. 8 00:00:39,140 --> 00:00:42,270 Mary: So Ian how much gold are we talking about? 9 00:00:42,270 --> 00:00:43,270 Enough for a ring? 10 00:00:43,270 --> 00:00:44,270 Ian Stevenson/Director of Coating Services: Not even that? 11 00:00:44,270 --> 00:00:46,820 Well, it depends on how big your ring is, of course. 12 00:00:46,820 --> 00:00:50,230 But the thickness of the coating is almost unimagineably small. 13 00:00:50,230 --> 00:00:56,040 To give an example, this piece of paper is 1/1000th of an inch. 14 00:00:56,040 --> 00:01:02,579 We could take 1000 gold coatings stack them all side by side and they would be the thickness 15 00:01:02,579 --> 00:01:03,579 of this piece of paper. 16 00:01:03,579 --> 00:01:08,180 In terms of the amount of gold that we need, it comes to 3 grams of material. 17 00:01:08,180 --> 00:01:14,290 Mary: And 3 grams look like this... wow, that's amazing. 18 00:01:14,290 --> 00:01:15,880 Considering how big the mirror is. 19 00:01:15,880 --> 00:01:20,820 Ian: That amount, when it's spread out thin enough covers the whole surface of the hexagon. 20 00:01:20,820 --> 00:01:24,080 Mary: When you apply the coating, are we talking about a paint job? 21 00:01:24,080 --> 00:01:26,880 Ian: No, this is called vacuum deposition. 22 00:01:26,880 --> 00:01:31,190 It happens in a chamber where all the air's been sucked out to create a vacuum and we 23 00:01:31,190 --> 00:01:33,100 vaporize the gold. 24 00:01:33,100 --> 00:01:38,460 We create a cloud of vapor and that vapor condenses on the surface to form the film. 25 00:01:38,460 --> 00:01:41,430 Mary: And why do you choose to apply the gold that way? 26 00:01:41,430 --> 00:01:45,280 Ian: That's the way to get the maximum reflection. 27 00:01:45,280 --> 00:01:48,200 Spray painting or other techniques wouldn't give us enough reflection. 28 00:01:48,200 --> 00:01:52,430 Mary: Can we actually see the gold being applied to a mirror? 29 00:01:52,430 --> 00:01:55,280 Ian: Sure, Ty's the guy who operates the coating machine. 30 00:01:55,280 --> 00:01:58,170 He'd be happy to show you how that works. 31 00:01:58,170 --> 00:01:59,250 Mary: Hey Ty. 32 00:01:59,250 --> 00:02:01,930 I was told that a coating process is about to start. 33 00:02:01,930 --> 00:02:04,520 Tyrone Wilson/Coating Chamber Technician: Sure, we're about to start the coating soon. 34 00:02:04,520 --> 00:02:07,090 Mary: Can we tag along? 35 00:02:07,090 --> 00:02:09,769 Ty: Sure.... 36 00:02:09,769 --> 00:02:13,690 What we're doing here now... we're preparing a mirror for coating. 37 00:02:13,690 --> 00:02:19,450 Cleaning the mirror of any contaminants or any particles that could be on the mirror. 38 00:02:19,450 --> 00:02:22,530 Mary: So Ty, what's going on here now? 39 00:02:22,530 --> 00:02:26,299 Ty: Ok now, we're putting on the shield and the masks on the mirror because we don't want 40 00:02:26,299 --> 00:02:27,299 any coating to get on the sides of the mirror 41 00:02:27,299 --> 00:02:29,430 and the coating cannot be beyond a certain area on the mirror. 42 00:02:29,430 --> 00:02:32,950 Mary: So you want the gold to just be on the surface, nothing on the sides or anything. 43 00:02:32,950 --> 00:02:33,950 Ty: Right. 44 00:02:33,950 --> 00:02:35,120 There's also a bevel on the edge of the mirror. 45 00:02:35,120 --> 00:02:37,260 We don't want any coating on the bevel either. 46 00:02:37,260 --> 00:02:40,489 Mary: How long is this going to take? 47 00:02:40,489 --> 00:02:42,700 Ty: Maybe an hour in total. 48 00:02:42,700 --> 00:02:48,980 Mary: So I understand there are no cameras in the chamber. 49 00:02:48,980 --> 00:02:49,980 Can we see what's going on? 50 00:02:49,980 --> 00:02:52,090 Ty: We take a look inside our view port. 51 00:02:52,090 --> 00:02:57,139 We see the part rotating and the glow disperse right now. 52 00:02:57,139 --> 00:03:05,150 Mary: So Ty, we couldn't show the actual company specific equipment that was used to apply 53 00:03:05,150 --> 00:03:08,709 the coating but we get to see the gold coated mirror, fresh out of the chamber! 54 00:03:08,709 --> 00:03:10,040 Ty: Yeah, it's neat. 55 00:03:10,040 --> 00:03:11,450 Look at it. 56 00:03:11,450 --> 00:03:13,739 The mirror's coated now and we're all completed. 57 00:03:13,739 --> 00:03:17,690 We're ready to ship it off to the customer and he can begin their testing. 58 00:03:17,690 --> 00:03:21,040 Mary: Well thanks so much for guiding us through your coating process. 59 00:03:21,040 --> 00:03:22,040 It was fascinating. 60 00:03:22,040 --> 00:03:23,879 Ty: Not a problem at all. 61 00:03:23,879 --> 00:03:28,219 Mary: So, as you can see, gold isn't just a fashion accessory for the James Webb Space 62 00:03:28,219 --> 00:03:34,400 Telescope but a critical addition to making the observatory work it's very best.