Filter type: Meshed Carbon/ LUXFilm® Polyimide/ Carbon and meshed Carbon/ LUXFilm® Polyimide/ Aluminum
Launch date: August 5, 2011
Status: Active
Juno, named after the mythological goddess who was wife to Jupiter and was known for being able to see his true nature, is a NASA mission to Jupiter that aims to do much the same thing: study the conditions of the atmosphere and magnetosphere with the goal of better understanding the planet’s creation and evolution. The JEDI instrument which contains Luxel’s filters was developed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab and is designed to collect data on the distribution of ions in Jupiter’s polar magnetic fields. It will take five years from the launch for Juno to reach Jupiter, and it is schedule to orbit the planet for about a year. Read more about the mission here.
Filter type: Meshless Aluminum/ LUXFilm® Polyimide on the CheMin instrument
Launch date: November 26, 2011
Status: Landed on Mars August 6, 2012 – actively exploring the surface as of June 2013
One in a series of NASA robotic exploration missions to Mars, the main goal of the Curiosity rover is to study the habitability of the planet; specifically, whether or not the environment has ever supported microbial forms of life. The rover has an on-board laboratory in which in can conduct experiments on soil and rock samples it collects from the planets surface. Luxel’s filters are on the Chemistry and Mineralogy X-Ray Diffusion Instrument (CheMin), which measures amounts of various minerals in powdered surface samples through X-ray diffraction. Learn more about the mission here.
Filter type: Aluminum/ Lexan/ Aluminum
Launch date: July 25, 2013
Status:
This communications satellite, the first one of the Alphabus project, also carried several technology demonstration projects (TDPs). Luxel built filters for TDP #8, an environment effects facility that monitors the impact of radiation on electronic components and sensors for equipment traveling in a geostationary orbit. Learn more about Alphasat here.
Filter type: Meshed Aluminum
Launch date: August 8, 2013
Status: Successfully completed a 15 minute flight
Luxel provided filters for the VEry high angular Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (VERIS) instrument aboard this sounding rocket. VERIS had capabilities of measuring the sun’s upper atmosphere at a resolution about eight times clearer than any telesclope in space at the time of flight. The rocket launched 150 miles into space and had six minutes in which to collect data without interference from the Earth’s atmosphere. Read more about the mission here.