December 12, 2011 – Marketwire — Teledyne DALSA manufactured the CCD sensors — designed by NASA — on the NASA mission to Mars. The Curiosity Rover launched on Saturday, November 26, 2011. The sensors are embedded in its Engineering Cameras — 4 Navcams and 8 Hazcams — located on the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Rover to help it navigate the surface of the planet.
Also read: NASA technologist talks CNTs, nanowires, PCMs…
Navcams (Navigation Cameras) are mounted on a pan/tilt mast 2 meters above the ground. They use visible light to gather black-and-white panoramic, three-dimensional images. The navigation camera unit is a stereo pair of cameras, each with a 45° field of view that will support ground navigation planning by scientists and engineers. They will work in cooperation with the hazard avoidance cameras by providing a complementary view of the terrain.
Hazcams (Hazard Avoidance Cameras) are mounted on the lower portion of the front and rear of the rover, these black-and-white cameras will use visible light to capture three-dimensional images used to keep the rover from getting lost or inadvertently crashing into unexpected obstacles. Working with the rover’s software, Hazcams allow the rover to make its own safety choices. The cameras each have a wide field of view of about 120°. The rover uses pairs of Hazcam images to map out the shape of the terrain as far as 3 meters (10 feet) in front of it, in a "wedge" shape that is over 4 meters wide (13 feet) at the farthest distance. The cameras need to see far on either side because unlike human eyes, the Hazcam cameras cannot move independently; they are mounted directly on the rover body.
Teledyne DALSA’s semiconductor wafer foundry has supported NASA’s missions to Mars since 1997. The CCD sensors in the MSL Rovers’ Engineering Cameras are custom devices, designed by NASA and manufactured by Teledyne DALSA. "With this type of mission, failure is not an option," said Donald Robert, VP of sales at Teledyne DALSA’s Foundry Business, noting that the company’s harsh-environment sensors have performed to or above NASA’s requirements in the past.
Teledyne DALSA’s pure-play semiconductor wafer foundry builds MEMS, CCDs, and high-voltage CMOS devices. Visit www.teledynedalsa.com/semi for more information.
Teledyne DALSA, a Teledyne Technologies company, makes high-performance digital imaging and semiconductors. For more information, visit Teledyne DALSA’s website at www.teledynedalsa.com.