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Spinoff story
Gold Coating Keeps Oscars Bright
A real-world story of NASA technology finding a life beyond the mission.
About this technology
Overview
The Academy Awards is not a place most people look for NASA technology, but it’s there: the coveted Oscar trophy is coated in the same gold that helps telescopes glimpse distant galaxies. In the 1990s, Brooklyn-based Epner Technology, a longtime NASA partner, improved its process to make the gold more durable while retaining its high shine for a Mars Orbiter instrument. Now that process is used for art, medical instruments, the James Webb Space Telescope constructed at Goddard Space Flight Center—and the Oscars.