BALL AEROSPACE HIRISE CAMERA RETURNS STUNNING MARS IMAGES.A Ball Aerospace-built camera is returning the highest- resolution images of planet Mars from the largest telescopic instrument ever sent beyond Earth's orbit. Positioned roughly 190 miles (300 kilometers) above the Red Planet, the High- Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera flying aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO MRO In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the Mauritanian Ouguiya. Notes: The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion. ) relayed its first low-altitude images on Friday, Sept. 29. The Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. HiRISE camera began its journey to Mars in August, 2005. The first images from HiRISE were returned in March of this year, when HiRISE was roughly 1,600 miles away from Mars (2,500 kilometers). MRO then began its aerobraking aer·o·brak·ing n. The use of atmospheric drag rather than onboard thrusters to reduce the velocity of a satellite or spacecraft. sequence to lower the spacecraft into its final orbit. The HiRISE camera is designed to image the surface at up to five times the resolution currently provided by the Mars Global Surveyor The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) was a US spacecraft developed by NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and launched November 1996. It began the United States's return to Mars after a 20-year absence. , identifying images as small as a coffee table. See Images at http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu. "Ball Aerospace has been contributing to NASA's exploration of Mars The exploration of Mars has been an important part of the space exploration programs of the Soviet Union (later Russia), the United States, Europe, and Japan. Dozens of robotic spacecraft, including orbiters, landers, and rovers, have been launched toward Mars since the 1960s. since 1976," said president and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. David L. Taylor. "There's tremendous anticipation in knowing that the Ball Aerospace-built camera is expected to return more science data than all previous Mars missions." Ball Aerospace is celebrating its 50th year in business in 2006. The company began building pointing controls for military rockets in 1956, and later won a contract to build one of NASA's first spacecraft, the Orbiting Solar Observatory Orbiting Solar Observatory (OSO), series of eight orbiting observatories (see observatory, orbiting) launched between 1962 and 1971 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to study the sun in the ultraviolet and X-ray wavelengths filtered out by . Over the years, the company has been responsible for numerous technological and scientific "firsts" and now acts as a technology innovator for important national missions. Ball Corporation (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :BLL) is a supplier of high-quality metal and plastic packaging products and owns Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. Ball reported 2005 sales of $5.8 billion and employs 15,600 people. For more information, call 303/939-6146. |
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