Variable Emittance Materials: Adaptive Thermal Control for Spacecraft
July 29, 2025
Variable Emittance Materials offer lightweight, adaptive thermal control for spacecraft, reducing mass and power needs vs. traditional methods.
Archive for the ‘Coatings’ Category
Spectrally Tailored PVD Coatings: Expanding Application Methods with Flake Pigments
May 30, 2025
Read our application note on how spectrally tailored physical vapor deposition (PVD) coatings can be transformed into flake pigments for paint, enabling optical and thermal control on large or complex surfaces where traditional deposition coating is impractical.
Surface Optics Coatings Protecting Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s Deformable Mirrors
September 26, 2024
The Surface Optics Coatings Lab had the privilege of contributing to a critical optical component of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, slated to launch by May 2027. Roman is an infrared telescope named after Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first Chief of Astronomy. She is also known as the “Mother of Hubble” for her foundational […]
Surface Optics Presents Optical Coating Process for Complex Shaped Surfaces at Navy Technology Event
March 16, 2021
Surface Optics was awarded a Phase II NAVAIR Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to develop antireflection coatings for aerodynamic missile domes and will present this new optical coating technology at the Navy Forum for SBIR/STTR Transition (FST), March 17-18. Hosted by Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), this event connects SBIR/STTR-funded technologies with government acquisition […]
The Thermal Control Coatings Protecting InSight’s Marsquake Detector
May 7, 2018
[vc_row type=”full_width_content”][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”14559″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”An artist’s concept shows the InSight lander, its sensors, cameras and instruments. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech ” font_container=”tag:div|font_size:15px|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”Robotic Geologist Headed to Mars” use_theme_fonts=”yes” css=”.vc_custom_1526428295806{margin-bottom: 2% !important;}”][vc_column_text]NASA successfully launched the InSight lander this month, sending InSight on a half-year journey to reach Mars. It is the first mission to the […]
NuSTAR telescope maps supernova core
March 10, 2014
NASA’s newest x-ray telescope has produced the first map of radioactive material in a supernova remnant, revealing new information on how stars explode.
‘Hand of God’ spotted by NASA’s NuSTAR telescope
January 14, 2014
NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) has produced new images of a pulsar wind nebula, revealing a striking formation nicknamed the “Hand of God”.
Data from Kepler space telescope indicates Earth-like planets are right next door
February 11, 2013
Using publicly available data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope, astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) have found that six percent of red dwarf stars have habitable, Earth-sized planets. Since red dwarfs are the most common stars in our galaxy, the closest Earth-like planet could be just 13 light-years away.
NuSTAR space telescope utilizes thermal control coating developed by Surface Optics Corp.
July 6, 2012
Launched June 13, 2012, NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, has captured it’s first images of a black hole in the high energy X-ray (5 – 80 keV) region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Surface Optics, in cooperation with ManTech International Corporation and it’s subsidiary NeXolve, developed the protective thermal covers in-use on the NuSTAR […]
Advanced Large Area Deposition Technology for Astronomical and Space Applications
December 13, 2011
The article “Advanced Large Area Deposition Technology for Astronomical and Space Applications”, authored by Surface Optics Corporation’s R & D Engineer Michael L. Fulton and Coatings Lab Manager Richard S. Dummer, describes SOC’s design of a unique 3.3 meter diameter chamber, equipped with an e-beam, resistance source, and Ion Assisted Deposition (IAD) system mounted on a movable stage.