Date: Jul 22, 2005 Source: Science & Technology Network (
click here to go to the source)
As NASA prepares for Tuesday's planned launch of the first space shuttle in more than two years, a Michigan company is playing a role in checking the safety of the vehicle's insulation.
Picometrix Inc. makes machines that use lasers for a variety of applications in telecommunications, security and the space program.
THz imaging of shuttle foamAmong its products is a terahertz, or T-Ray machine, that NASA used to scan the foam insulation on the Discovery's fuel tank.
A chunk of fuel-tank foam insulation tore a hole in the space shuttle Columbia's left wing at liftoff and led to its catastrophic re-entry on Feb. 1, 2003. All seven astronauts were killed.
NASA used the T-Ray to seek minute flaws in the insulation, which is sprayed onto the exterior of the fuel tank.
Ann Arbor's Picometrix was one of hundreds of companies that aided a NASA overhaul of the shuttle.
Picometrix designs and makes semiconductors that convert laser pulses into electrical pulses that can be read by computers, The Ann Arbor News reported. The company says its QA 1000 machine can see inside the insulation without leaving dangerous radiation behind.
The scanning procedure seeks air bubbles, voids, moisture and other irregularities in the foam that might lead it to crack or break.
"You can tell what the shape looks like, but also what it's made of," said company president and general manager Rob Risser.
Picometrix, which was recently acquired by California-based Advanced Photonix Inc. of Camarillo, Calif., is a University of Michigan spinoff company that has built on technology first developed at the university's Center for Ultrafast Optical Science.
"The strategy is getting the T-Ray into the hands of the government and university labs so they can start to use in it research projects," said Advanced Phoenix chairman and chief executive Richard Kurtz.
The company is developing a system to check for guns, knives and explosives inside baggage for airlines. It also is investigating whether the technology is effective in measuring the consistency of pharmaceutical tablets.
