Alliance Is Formed to Develop Collimators

Kaman Aerospace Corp.'s Electro-Optics Development Center and The University of Arizona Steward Observatory Mirror Laboratory have been awarded a $35 million contract to build a 6.5-m aperture collimator that will test large optical systems in a vacuum environment. Steward Observatory will cast and polish the large astronomical optics, and Kaman will design and fabricate the structural, electrical, mechanical and software control systems for the instrument. The Tucson, Ariz.-based partners will design the active and adaptive optical systems and will assemble, test and deliver the collimator in 2006.