Mountain Optech optical drive goes to Smithsonian

Citation

(1999), "Mountain Optech optical drive goes to Smithsonian", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 71 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.1999.12771cab.048

Mountain Optech optical drive goes to Smithsonian

Mountain Optech optical drive goes to Smithsonian

Keywords Aerospace, Drives, Mountain Optech

Mountain Optech, Inc. was delighted to learn recently that one of their WORM optical drives will soon be a part of the Smithsonian Institution's collection. The Smithsonian is currently building a new facility outside Washington, DC, to house their expanded Air & Space Museum.

Mountain Optech's SEL-2 SAMS drives have flown on at least 16 SAMS (Space Acceleration Measurement System) missions since its inception in 1991. The drive to be included in the materials being sent to the Smithsonian was resident on the MIR Space Station, in the module damaged by the collision with the space shuttle in June of 1997. According to a Program Manager, when the SEL-2 SAMS was retrieved from MIR, after months of exposure to the unprotected temperatures of outer space, it still worked perfectly, unquestionably proving the viability of optical technology in harsh environments. Although WORM technology has long since made way for rewritable optical drives, the optical technology and ruggedization techniques used by Mountain Optech are still essentially the same.