posted 01-08-2007 08:09 PM               

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Mark Mulligan is selling what appears to be a shiny glob of tangled fishing line for at least $8,500.

These 8-millimeter thin threads are worth more than $600 an ounce because they are .999 percent pure gold.

These are left over from a spool of golden thread that went to space several years ago in satellites on two Japanese-American rockets, perfectly tucked into cylinders the size of a 40-ounce beer can.

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Surplus With A Purpose (SWAP) auction lot #10830: One Lot of Gold Wire

posted 01-09-2007 01:19 PM               

From Mark Mulligan with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center:

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This gold has never left the lab and was originally purchased as part of the stock for the manufacture of salt pills. Two of the salt pills we produced were for the ASTRO-E and ASTRO-E2 missions. The other pair of salt pills we built were for ground based instruments.

The attached photo shows the wire today. It's not nearly as neat and orderly. The process of assembling the salt pill generates many small lengths of gold wire. In addition, we had to replace a couple of bundles of wires on a couple of salt pills. That generated the bulk of the gold.

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