DALSA-built CCD Chips Deliver Stunning Imagery Of Martian Landscape (Forwarded)
Andrew Yee
For more information, please contact:
Patrick Myles
Director, Corporate Communications
DALSA Corporation
519-886-6001 ext. 2177
519-886-3972 (fax)
E-mail: inve...@dalsa.com
Internet: www.dalsa.com
January 6, 2004
DALSA-built CCD Chips Deliver Stunning Imagery Of Martian Landscape
Waterloo, Ontario -- Three days after successfully landing on Mars, the Mars
Exploration Rover "Spirit" has successfully begun transmitting high resolution
colour images of the "red" planet. The CCD image sensor chips, designed by
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, were
manufactured at DALSA's semiconductor wafer production facility in Bromont, Quebec.
The space-qualified chips are critical components in the nine electronic cameras
aboard each of the two Rovers. "Spirit" landed on Saturday, January 3rd, and
"Opportunity," its twin, is expected to land on the other side of the planet in
three weeks. Three cameras on each Rover are responsible for scientific
investigation, including panoramic and stereoscopic images. Six other cameras
aid in navigating the vehicle on the surface of Mars. The cameras will serve as
the vehicle's "electronic eyes", as it examines its landing site for geological
evidence of past liquid water activity and past environmental conditions
hospitable to life.
Spirit's high resolution "Pancam", which employs the DALSA-manufactured chips,
is the most sophisticated color imaging system ever sent to the surface of
another planet and is responsible for the colour images Spirit has transmitted
to earth. The stereo pair of CCD cameras is located on a "camera bar" that sits
on top of the mast of the Rover and is responsible for taking high resolution
views of the surface and sky through eight different coloured filters. Pancam's
mast assembly allows it to rotate a complete 360 deg while the camera bar itself
can swing up or down through 180 deg of elevation. This allows the cameras to
generate stunning panoramic image mosaics as large as 4,000 pixels high by
24,000 pixels around, equivalent to a 96 megapixel image.
"We're extremely proud of the contribution our employees at Bromont have made to
this landmark achievement in space exploration," commented Savvas Chamberlain,
CEO of DALSA Corporation. "We have a good working history with NASA/JPL and
we're thrilled that we can once again play a role in such an important project."
The Mars Exploration Rover is the second high profile space related project
DALSA has been involved in the past several years. Engineers in Waterloo
supplied the space-qualified CCD camera electronics for the Canadarm2 robotic
arm that was installed at the International Space Station in April 2001.
About DALSA Corporation
DALSA is an international high performance semiconductor and electronics company
that designs, develops, manufactures, and markets digital imaging products and
solutions, in addition to providing wafer foundry services. DALSA's core
competencies are in specialized integrated circuit and electronics technology,
and highly engineered semiconductor wafer processing. Products include image
sensor components; electronic digital cameras; and semiconductor wafer foundry
services for use in MEMS, power semiconductors, image sensors and mixed-signal
CMOS chips.
DALSA is a public company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol
"DSA". Based in Waterloo, ON. Canada, the company has operations in Bromont, PQ;
Colorado Springs, CO; Tucson, AZ; Eindhoven, NL; Munich, Germany and Tokyo, Japan.
NASA Mars Rover Related Links
* NASA Mars Rover Mission
http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/
* Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Rover Newspage
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov