The camera box exhibited some anomalous behavior during its first flight.  This prompted some redesign of the lid, seal, and view port material.  The original box contained a rectangular piece of optical crown glass that was one side of a dual O-ring seal.  The other side was the polished aluminum box itself.  The seals were of a very sturdy low out gassing material from Rocket Seals Inc.

The original camera box can be seen on the COLLIDE hardware page.  For the second flight, the camera model and number did not change. The same cameras used on the first flight will be utilized again, due to their performance under non-ideal conditions.   The second generation of the flight camera box makes use of the same base container as the original, but with a totally redesigned view port and upper seal system.

The new seal system relies on polished aluminum to seal the container at the main seal, and a polycarbonate/polished aluminum surface to seal the view port.  A new seal of teflon has been designed by Andy Diaz and has a much higher chance of success in holding the camera pressure (1 atm differential) due to the smaller view port size.  The camera data will be collected directly from the camera upon retreival from the GAS can and transfered directly to computer.