Blog — World Space Week

We've covered a lot of topics this during World Space Week, from satellites to telescopes to our commitment to innovation and exploration. For us, there’s one thing that all these topics have in common, and that’s our customers—the individuals who use our products every day and who help us create the new products that will drive our business forward. We serve a wide variety of industries—automotive, biomedical, education, laboratory supplies, defense, aerospace—just to name a few, and we’re always looking to branch our and share what we do. But even as we evolve and grow, we haven’t lost sight of...

Go for the gold You're likely familiar with the reflective gold visor in space helmets. Well, when it comes to gear the astronauts use, it really is gold. The coating is a thin layer of gold applied to a helmets inner visor. Astronauts need it for protection. Why? Because you want to reflect as much harmful infrared radiation as possible from the sun—and gold has extraordinary reflectivity. Additionally, it has excellent reliability and corrosion resistance. We all know that exposure to sunlight is bad for our skin. UV rays can do a lot of damage. The same goes for our...

Throughout our World Space Week series, we’ve talked about satellites, lasers, telescopes, software, and many other applications of our optical systems. We’ve also discussed the years of work and research and development that goes into creating them. Now, we’re turning our lens on a simple optical component that’s used in many of the devices that you use every day. It’s one that you’ve likely never noticed or considered—the retroreflector. Safety firstYou know, that plastic reflector you see on your bike, or the “cats’ eye” embedded in the road, or the shiny elements on your running shoes? They’re actually very interesting  pieces...

Esco started out as an optics supplier for amateur astronomers. And things just took off from there. Today, we work with NASA and other leading aeronautics organizations, helping to develop the optical technologies that are providing first looks at never before seen galaxies, light years away. Talk about moving up to the big leagues. Satellite optics on the launchpadThese new technologies are everywhere, from everyday items to satellites orbiting the Earth. The James Webb Space Telescope launched in Dec 2021 is the most sophisticated space telescope ever built with an estimated cost of $10 billion dollars. Space instrumentation is expensive and very complicated...