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Spinoff story
Miniature Positioner Focuses Lenses with Precision
A real-world story of NASA technology finding a life beyond the mission.
About this technology
Overview
An instrument designed to study dark matter and dark energy for the ground-based Subaru Telescope in Japan required thousands of miniature positioners powered with tiny piezoelectric motors. Engineers from the California Institute of Technology and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory worked with Victor, New York-based New Scale Technologies to perfect the rotary motors, and these low-voltage modules are now being used in a variety of contexts, including medical instruments.