WASHINGTON, Nov. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- This month, spacecraft Mars Global
Surveyor is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral on a ten-month voyage
to
Mars. The mission, to be the first U.S. space visit to Earth's nearest
planetary neighbor in twenty years, will make use of highly sophisticated
instrumentation, including equipment that depends upon the advanced
applications of the metal gold.
Among the spacecraft's scientific payload is the Mars Orbiter Laser
Altimeter -- or MOLA -- which, with the aid of a gold-coated parabolic
telescope-mirror, will generate an extraordinarily detailed topographic map
of
the entire Martian surface over a two-year period. The laser altimeter's
gold-coated telescope-mirror -- and other gold-dependent applications and
devices on the mission to Mars -- underscore the growing technological and
economic importance of U.S.-produced gold.
The laser altimeter will map the Red Planet as the surveyor orbits
silently 227 miles above the Martian surface. The laser device will pulse an
infrared beam off the planetary surface ten times a second; each beam
covering
a 160-meter square area. The gold-coated telescope-mirror is designed to
capture the reflected beam on the rebound, while the altimeter precisely
measures the time it takes for the laser light to travel down and back. By
measuring the tiny variations in transmission time, scientists can determine
to an accuracy of a single meter the height and shape of landscape features,
including plains, valleys, craters and mountains.
Similar laser altimeters have already flown on Mars Observer,
Clementine
(lunar) and NEAR (asteroid) missions, according to Tom Thorpe, the Science
Systems Manager for the Mars Global Surveyor Project at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
"The laser's compactness and light weight, in combination with its
nano-
second timing capability, make the instrument ideal for low-cost missions of
exploration through the solar system," said Thorpe. "The gold coating on the
mirror is essential to the mapping operation by giving the telescope the
optimum sensitivity for detecting the reflected laser light. This is made
possible by gold's extremely high-quality reflectivity of infrared
radiation."
The primary mirror lens, which is about a half-meter in diameter,
is made
of beryllium and was ground by OCA Applied Optics in Garden Grove,
California.
The plating was handled by Epner Technology of Brooklyn, New York, whose
proprietary pure-gold deposition process has made the firm one of the world's
foremost gold-platers for advanced optical and laser equipment. The process,
known as "Laser Gold"(TM), is a Standard Reference Material (SRM) recognized
by the National Institute for Standards and Technology.
"What makes gold incomparable for the most sophisticated optical
and laser
applications like the Mars laser altimeter, where the margin for error is
absolutely nil, is its extraordinary reflectivity, in combination with its
virtually perfect reliability and corrosion resistance," says Epner owner and
CEO David Epner.
The altimeter mirror is but one of several key functions that gold
will
serve on the five-year, $150 million mission. Another involves the digital
communication of data from all the instruments aboard the probe back to
Earth,
requiring static-free transmission over the 36-million mile minimum distance
between the two planets. Exposed to a steady stream of intense, static-
generating solar radiation, as well as the effects of all the other
electronic
instruments operating simultaneously aboard the vehicle, the boxes housing
these sensitive devices are plated with gold to provide them with an
impenetrable electronic-noise barrier.
Back on Earth, mission scientists working with the data will be
scattered
at remote laboratories around the country and worldwide -- a unique and
innovative organization for a space project team, necessitated by the
mission's long duration, which makes it impractical to concentrate the
scientists at one central site. Linked by computer, the mission team will be
fed data continuously from the Mars Global Surveyor's home base at the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. The microelectronics that enable
instantaneous global data transmission are dependent on gold components to
ensure reliable, corrosion-resistant and static-free performance.
Gold's exceptional reflectivity, conductivity and corrosion
resistance
have long made it a vital material in mankind's exploration of the heavens.
For instance, the computers and transmitters aboard the Jupiter spacecraft
Galileo were encapsulated in reflective gold to prevent electronic
interference and to withstand the heavy ion bombardment the spacecraft
sustained as it approached the hostile Jovian atmosphere. Many satellites
are
protected against solar heat by gold-coated mylar sheets, and a thin layer of
gold on the helmets of astronauts enable them to work in space safe from the
lethal effects of solar radiation.
The growing use of gold in advanced technologies such as
microelectronics,
telecommunications, optics, aviation and aerospace has increasingly made the
metal a vital strategic resource in U.S. technological and economic
competitiveness. About one-quarter of U.S. gold production was devoted to
these industrial uses. Another 35% of the approximately 330 tons of
American-
produced gold last year was exported, contributing favorably to the national
balance of trade. U.S. gold production, second highest in the world after
South Africa, has doubled since 1985, supporting over 86,000 American jobs.
The Mars Global Surveyor promises to be one of the most exciting
space
missions of the 1990s, and is expected to make an enormous contribution to
our
understanding of Mars, the Earth and the solar system as a whole. In
addition
to the topographic survey, continuous measurements and observations will be
made of Martian atmospheric conditions, temperature, magnetic forces,
gravitational pull and other aspects of the Red Planet's environment.
Information and analysis derived front the mission could be invaluable in
supporting future Mars missions that will include soft landings and surface
explorations.
More information is available from any of the informational
resource
contacts included on the following list:
Tom Thorpe
Science Systems Manager
Mars Global Surveyor Project
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena, CA
818-354-3611
David Epner
President
Epner Technology Incorporated
Brooklyn, NY
718-782-5948
Dr. David E. Smith
Principal Investigator
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Laboratory for Terrestrial Physics
Greenbelt, MD
301-286-8671
CO: Gold Institute
ST: District of Columbia
IN: MNG ARO
SU:
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