Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colorado, will build the camera optics and support structure for a land-based astronomy and celestial surveillance telescope under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Ball said in a June 19 press release.
The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope will monitor dark matter and dark energy and observe transient events such as asteroids from a perch atop a 2,500-meter-tall mountain in Chile, Ball said. The telescope will capture a full image of the night sky every three nights, the company said.
Ball, along with teammate Arizona Optical Systems (AOS), will build two large refractive lenses and associated support structure. AOS will machine, polish and test the optical lenses; Ball will build the mechanical support structure and manage the project.
The press release did not include the contract value. Roz Brown, a spokeswoman for Ball, referred questions about the price tag to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The press office at the lab did not respond to emails requesting the contract value.
