Daily News Briefs

Mark Optics, of Santa Ana, Calif., worked as a subcontractor for Lightworks Optics, of Tustin, and Ball Aerospace on the HRI (high-resolution imager) and MRI (medium-resolution imager) mirror systems used on NASA's Deep Impact Spacecraft, launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., on Jan. 12. The HRI and MRI instruments are the primary instruments on the flyby spacecraft. The mission will travel to a comet and release an impactor creating a crater on the comet's surface. Scientists believe the exposed materials may give clues to the formation of our solar system. Mark Optics was responsible for shaping, light-weighting and generating the curves on the primary and secondary mirrors used in the systems. It also polished the rear surfaces for stress relief, engraved alignment fiducials on them, and was responsible for thermal cycling (CRYO) of the components for the high- and medium-resolution instruments. (Illustraton: NASA) . . . Laserscope, a San Jose, Calif., developer of medical lasers and advanced fiber optic devices, MD International Inc., a distributor of medical equipment in Latin America and the Caribbean, have signed an exclusive three-year agreement for distribution of Laserscope's GreenLight PVP (photoselective vaporization of the prostate) laser system, PVP disposable fiber optics and aesthetic laser system line. . . . Dave W. Staats was promoted to vice president of business development and general manager of Spirox Corp. USA, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based provider of technology for integrated design and fabrication through assembly and test for the semiconductor and TFT-LCD high-tech industries. Staats joined Spirox as a sales support manager in 1995. Most recently, he was director of business development.