Gold In Space

Gold also has excellent heat resistant and insulating capacities and many space probes make use of gold foil as a thermal insulator for prolonged operation in the cold vacuum of space where temperatures can vary massively from the sunlit side of a space craft to the shadowed side.

The James Webb Space Telescope, the successor to the famous Hubble Space Telescope is scheduled to be launched in 2018 and features a 25m² primary mirror coated in Gold due to its reflectivity across the range of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Check back soon for Episode 5