GOLD-COATED INSTRUMENTS TO MAP RED PLANET FOR UPCOM

96-11-01 09:36:09 EST
Source: AOLNewsProfiles@aol.net
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
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