An optical interference filter from the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films (IST) is installed in the Mars rover "Perseverance". It helps NASA's rover to examine the dust in the planet's atmosphere under extreme conditions.
After a journey of over six months and 472 million kilometers, the new Mars rover has successfully landed on Mars and has been delivering spectacular images of the neighboring planet since landing. The aim of the mission is to gain important insights into possible life on Mars.
The interference filter (bandpass filter) is part of an optical sensor for dust characterization in the "Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA)". This carries out weather measurements, including wind speed and direction, temperature and humidity, as well as radiation and the quantity and size of dust particles in the Martian atmosphere. In the course of the mission, it will make a significant contribution to preparing for the exploration of Mars by humans.
The bandpass filter was produced on the IST's EOSS® coating system using magnetron sputtering. The optical monitoring system MOCCA+®, also developed at the IST, is used to ensure that the extremely thin individual layers of the filter are deposited with high precision and homogeneity. A special feature of these filters is that they work very stably even under exceptional environmental influences.
