News: Optoelectronics
15 June 2022
VIGO’s IR detectors selected for environmental system monitoring on NASA’s Orion spacecraft
VIGO Photonics of Ożarów Mazowiecki, Poland says that its infrared detector products have been selected to monitor critical environmental systems – namely the Laser Air Monitor System (LAMS) crew habitable environment spectrometer instrument – on board NASA’s Orion spacecraft. Part of the Artemis program, Orion will serve as the exploration vehicle that will carry the crew to space, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during the space travel, and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities. Orion will launch on NASA’s new heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System.
VIGO’s contribution to the project was providing qualified infrared detectors. LAMS was built by NASA to measure the concentration of CO2, H2O and O2 in both the cabin and suit environments. To address the challenging launch requirements, VIGO conducted qualification tests for space environments on standard detector products in their catalog.
“We are excited and honored to support NASA on such a great project that will help to shape the future of space exploration to our moon and eventually Mars,” says president & Adam Piotrowski. VIGO’s support of space exploration began with the EXOMARS mission and included deployment on the Mars Curiosity Rover.
