Jane Edwards
Ball Aerospace & Technologies and Arizona State University have teamed up to develop a thermal imaging tool that seeks to aid NASA in its mission to study whether a Jupiter moon is capable to support life.
The company said Thursday the thermal emission imaging technology, dubbed E-Themis, is one of the nine instruments to board a spacecraft to explore the conditions of the planet’s Europa moon.
“We are proud to be part of the Europa mission to support ASU in the development of an instrument for NASA’s search for life beyond Earth in our solar system,” said Jim Oschmann, vice president and general manager for civil space and technology division at Ball Aerospace & Technology.
A research team led by Dr. Philip Christensen at ASU’s School of Earth and Space Exploration will design, assemble and test the E-Themis system, while the company will equip the device with flight electronics, develop the microbolometer and subject the system to radiation hardening process.
Christensen said the system will be designed to work as a heat detector to scan the moon’s surface for potential warm sites and vents that emit water plumes into space.
