NASA selects Boston Micromachines for phase 2 project

Nov. 30, 2005 — Boston Micromachines Corp., a provider of MEMS-based deformable mirror products for adaptive optics systems, announced that it has been selected by NASA for a Phase 2 contract.

NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR) awarded Boston Micromachines an approximately $600,000 contract to develop a deformable mirror suitable for space-based operation in systems for high-resolution imaging.

The company says the mirror will be fabricated through a combination of MEMS fabrication techniques using single crystal silicon for all structural components. This mirror is intended to eventually operate in space as part of a future observatory mission for the detection of planets in other solar systems.

In a separate project already underway, Boston Micromachines is providing a high-resolution MEMS deformable mirror for a NASA-sponsored space exploration project led by Boston University. The project’s mission objective is to obtain a direct image of an extrasolar giant planet. Its telescope, which uses Boston Micromachines’ MEMS mirror for wavefront control, is slated to be launched from White Sands, N.M., aboard a NASA sounding rocket in early 2007.

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