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posted by martyb on Friday January 20 2017, @02:17AM   Printer-friendly
from the iron-is-a-precious-metal? dept.

NASA wants to uncover the mystery behind the asteroid “16 Psyche.” that may contain a priceless treasure trove of minerals. “We’ve been to all the different planets, we’ve been to other asteroids. But we’ve never visited a body that has been made of entirely metal,” said Carol Polanskey, project scientist for the Psyche mission. Now NASA, led by researchers at Arizona State University, plans to send an unmanned spacecraft to orbit 16 Psyche – an asteroid roughly the size of Massachusetts, made of iron and other precious metals. The mission’s leader estimates that the iron alone on today’s market would be worth $10,000 quadrillion.

Previously: NASA Selects Two Missions to Visit Asteroids


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 20 2017, @03:08PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 20 2017, @03:08PM (#456556)

    I'm not sure whether or not it's also a better conductor

    Gold is a very good conductor but copper is a somewhat better conductor than gold for the same thickness of material. The primary advantages of gold for electronics are that it does not corrode easily, and it is more malleable and ductile.

    I suspect gold wires do not break as easily as copper due to metal fatigue. So if gold was cheap you might find it used as the conductive material in thin flexible cables.