Photek Limited celebrates 11th Anniversary with Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE)

Recent news confirms the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) mission managed by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has gone from strength to strength for over a decade. The primary objective of ACE is to measure and compare the composition of several samples of matter including:

ACE has an unparalleled view of the solar wind, interplanetary magnetic field and higher energy particles accelerated by the Sun, as well as particles accelerated in the heliosphere and the galactic regions beyond.
Within an hour it disseminates space weather warnings against geomagnetic storms that can overload power grids, disrupt communications on Earth or present hazards to astronauts.

Photek designed and produced the MCP340 image intensifier for the Cosmic Ray Isotope Spectrometer (CRIS) experiment which launched on ACE in 1997. The CRIS instrument has taken a major step in ascertaining the isotopic composition of cosmic rays, determining their origin, and discovering the exact material accelerated by shock waves from supernova explosions. The design enables far greater particle collection power than previous satellite instruments and still maintains excellent isotopic resolution.

CRIS also has a second Photek MCP340 incase the working tube becomes redundant, however this has not been necessary as Professor W.R. Binns from Washington State University states:

“The instrument utilises a scintillating fiber hodoscope read out by the image intensifiers coupled to CCD arrays. The instrument and the image intensifier have been operating flawlessly, with no significant degradation in performance, since launch more than 10 years ago.”

This exciting news is currently being celebrated at Photek Limited along with the advent of several new projects and latest product development. The company is set to vastly increase output during the latter part of the year after recent increases to both staff and premises.

For other Photek news and product information go to:
www.photek.co.uk
Contact: ian.cox@photek.co.uk
Tel. 01424 850555

More details of the ACE mission can be found at: http://www.srl.caltech.edu/ACE/