Despite the high importance of gold as a means of capital accumulation, this precious metal has other, more impressive functions. For example, without products made of gold, it would be impossible to have a modern aircraft industry with supersonic aircraft, or the development of the space industry, with subsequent research of the Solar system.
Talking about the space, let’s start with the fact that all spacesuits of cosmonauts are equipped with light filters with a coating of pure gold. At one time, the famous Russian cosmonaut Alexey Leonov had a helmet covered with a thin layer of silver. This created a lot of problems, as the light was incredibly bright, and the lower part of the astronaut’s face quickly heated up. Later, the developers decided to use gold instead of silver.
In order to protect aircraft from high temperatures and corrosion, experts use gold foil. Even the windows of space shuttles are covered with gold film.
When creating the “James Webb” space telescope, a mirror consisting of 18 hexagonal segments and weighing more than 700 kg was used. Each of its sections was made of beryllium and covered with a layer of gold, 100 nanometers thick. This telescope registers infrared radiation, which is perfectly reflected by gold.
In 2017, NASA and the European space Agency demonstrated the LISA Pathfinder spacecraft. With its help, scientists can record data on the spread of space dust, which is formed from the movement of asteroids and comets. On Board of Lisa Pathfinder in a state of free fall there are two-kilogram cubes of platinum and gold. The main mission of this spacecraft is to refine the gravitational constant G.
The Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 interplanetary probes are equipped with gold plates. These are kind of discs with recordings containing sets of earth sounds and photos. Each disc contains greetings in 55 languages and 116 photos of landscapes, plants, and animals from Earth. It is gold that protects these disks from erosion, possible as a result of exposure to space dust.
For humanity, gold is much more important than some of us are used to think. Many modern devices have parts made of this precious metal, which clearly hints that over time — the demand for gold will only increase.
