Seeing satellites in space is tough work. It's that big annoying thing called the atmosphere. It distorts the view. But Trex Enterprises Corp., a San Diego high-tech company with operations in New Mexico, has an idea to get around the problem: Fourier telescopy.  "It is one of these unconventional imaging techniques," says Louis Cuellar, senior staff scientist with Trex. "You can essentially get a non-turbulent image, as you would if the atmosphere wasn't even there."

The technology, which uses multiple lasers to indirectly make images of objects in space, was on display at an open house of Trex's newly opened Albuquerque office. The new facility near I-25 and Menaul Boulevard Northeast will consolidate company offices and facilitate the expansion of Trex's work in the state. It could bring more than 36 jobs to Albuquerque. "It's much better for growth," said Allen Hunter II, president of Trex's research and development division. He said the consolidated offices will make it easier and faster for staff members to exchange ideas, key to tackling research problems. 

Trex opened its first New Mexico office in 1993 at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, where it works with the Air Force Research Laboratory. In 1998, it expanded into Socorro.  "We've got to get involved with these type of companies," said Van Romero, a physics professor from New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro who went on sabbatical to serve as vice president of New Mexico operations for Trex.  Trex, he said, can use its business savvy to help turn the ideas of university researchers into viable commercial products. "Taking them (research ideas) to a commercial market is not our (the universities) expertise," he said.

Commercializing products also serves as a powerful inspiration for scientists who get to see "their ideas really coming to fruition," he said.  In the past two years, Trex has spawned six subsidiaries that sell various technologies, from wireless data transmission to wind sensors, said Thomas Fargo, a retired admiral and executive vice president of Trex.