For millennia, gold was solely used as a store of value and an artistic medium. It’s a highly malleable metal, so malleable that it can be worked into shape by hand. It has a high degree of ductility, meaning it can be stretched into thin wires without breaking, an important property for a metal used to make jewelry. It is also highly unreactive and resistant to tarnish. These properties, along with its rarity, made it perfect for shaping into coins or decorative objects but almost useless for practical applications like tools or weapons. For centuries, gold was a functionally useless, but valuable and beautiful, metal.
That all changed in the modern age. Its conductivity makes it an indispensable component of electronics. Its unreactive nature also makes it perfect for use in satellites, as it can stand up to the high radiation and extreme conditions of outer space. Gold is not the only precious metal you’ll find orbiting the planet, either, with the typical satellite also relying on components containing platinum and palladium.
Gold
As gold is an important component of semiconductors and circuit boards, you’ll find it in all of a satellite’s vital instruments and systems. Gold is also used in satellites as a lubricant. Since technicians can’t exactly make regular service trips to repair satellites in orbit, satellites often contain a layer of gold between moving parts, which keeps those parts from rubbing against each other and wearing out.
The outer parts of satellites appear to be coated in a layer of gold. This coating is not actually gold but multi-layer insulation, a layer of aluminized polyimide over layers of plastic polymer films, according to this article on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website. These insulation layers serve to protect the satellite’s delicate electronics from harsh solar radiation.
Platinum
Platinum is used in satellites for a similar reason you’ll find the metal in automobiles. Your car’s catalytic converter helps turn poisonous chemicals found in exhaust gas into something less toxic. This chemical change is helped along by platinum, whose properties make it a powerful catalyst (a catalyst is a substance that facilitates a chemical reaction). New uses for platinum’s catalytic properties are still being discovered. It is used as a catalyst in the propulsion systems of the rockets that get satellites into orbit, and it may one day be used in the long-lasting fuel cells that power satellites and other objects that need to function without refueling for years or even decades. Research is ongoing into platinum’s use in increasing fuel cell efficiency for low-earth orbit satellites as well as deep-space probes.
Palladium
Palladium alloys are useful in solar panels deployed in space. The metal is lightweight, resistant to radiation, and can absorb light in the infrared and ultraviolet ranges. It is also useful as a durable, solderless connector that can stand up to the rigors of outer space.
DH Fell: For All Your Earthly Refining Needs
Perhaps sometime in the next century, your great-grandchildren will be going on expeditions to old satellites to salvage their precious metals. When that time comes, maybe they’ll visit DH Fell’s pod on the south pole of the moon for refining and recycling before heading back out into orbit. For the time being, at least, you’ll have to settle for bringing your precious metals to our refinery here on earth, where we’ve been doing business for over 50 years. You can check out our catalog here.
