Rochester Business Journal

Technology from Eastman Kodak Co. will be aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft when it is launched this week on its five-year voyage to Jupiter.

Kodak image sensor technology will help capture images of the gas giant, company officials said Tuesday. The sensor was selected by Malin Space Science Systems to serve as the “eye” of JunoCam, an instrument that will provide full color images of Jupiter as the spacecraft orbits the planet. The spacecraft is designed to investigate Jupiter's origins, interior structure, deep atmosphere and magnetosphere.

“Kodak has a rich history of participating in space exploration, and we are excited to see this legacy continue as part of the Juno mission,” said Chris McNiffe, general manager of Kodak’s image sensor solutions group.

Once the spacecraft arrives at Jupiter in 2016, JunoCam will be operated as part of the mission’s public outreach program, with imaging targets for the camera selected by the public working with the Juno science team.

Kodak sensors, officials said, also will be involved in two upcoming space missions scheduled to launch in November: in four separate camera systems of the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity scheduled to arrive at Mars in August 2012 and on the Russian spacecraft Phobos-Grunt for navigation and landing site selection on its mission to land on the Mars moon Phobos.

Phobos-Grunt is scheduled to land on Phobos in early 2013, and arrive back on Earth in August 2014.

Additional information on the Juno mission is available at www.nasa.gov/juno as well as missionjuno.swri.edu.

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