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 PLX’s space heritage proudly dates back to the 1970's when we provided Hollow Retroreflectors™ to the Apollo-Soyuz Russian-American space hookup program. The units were used to measure gases in the environment of the vehicles. Since then, PLX has successfully participated in a number of significant space projects.
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Beryllium Assemblies For The Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES)
PLX designed and manufactured complex beryllium assemblies for the Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) built by Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA. TES was a high-resolution infrared imaging FTIR spectrometer designed to measure the state of the Earth’s troposphere. It successfuly launched into polar orbit aboard NASA’s Earth Science Enterprise EOS-CHEM spacecraft in December 2002.
Other PLX-designed instruments chosen for TES included back-to-back Hollow Retroreflector™ assemblies, Hollow Roof Mirror™ assemblies and various folding mirrors, all made of beryllium. With accuracies that were better than 1 arc second maximum deviation and l/20 surface flatness (l=633nm), these instruments operated without distortion at cryogenic temperatures down to –100°C after surviving launch vibration conditions.
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Retroreflector In Space (RIS) For NASDA
PLX designed and manufactured the 50cm (20”) diameter Retroreflector In Space (RIS) for NASDA, the Japanese Space Agency. The largest retroreflector ever sent into space, RIS was launched on the ADEOS satellite. RIS achieved 1 second of arc accuracy and contained a curved mirror to compensate for the movement of the satellite through space.
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Retroreflector Array™ for NASA
PLX manufactured a Retroreflector Array™ for NASA’s Endeavor Shuttle Radar Mission. It created a high-resolution digital topographic database of the Earth. PLX also built retroreflector components for NASA’s Discovery Shuttle Long-Distance Laser Test as well as the Relay Mirror and LACE experiments. |
For more information, please e-mail us at info@plxinc.com. |
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