Thales Laser on Mars 2020 Mission: Three Days to Touchdown
16.2.2021 01:40:00 EET | Business Wire | Press release
On 18 February, the Perseverance rover — a key component of the Mars 2020 mission — will touch down on the Red Planet after a long seven-month voyage. SuperCam, one of seven strategic onboard instruments, is a powerful combination of technologies designed to analyse, characterise and select Martian rock samples. SuperCam is the result of close collaboration between Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in the United States and the astrophysics and planetology research institute in France (IRAP, CNRS / CNES / Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier), with contributions from the University of Hawaii and the University of Valladolid in Spain. The Mast Unit, the French part of SuperCam located at the top of the rover’s mast, was designed and built by a consortium of French laboratories1 from CNRS, universities and entities under the scientific lead of the IRAP team and under the responsibility of CNES, the French space agency. The laser supplied by Thales is a key part of the Mast Unit.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210215005423/en/
Credits: NASA
In 2012, Curiosity landed on Mars equipped with the first high-power laser to operate on the surface of another planet, a laser designed and developed by Thales for the ChemCam instrument. The ChemCam laser has been operating faultlessly for over eight years and has fired close to 855,000 shots to date as Curiosity has made its 24-kilometre trek across the surface of the Red Planet. Data from ChemCam has already helped to prove that conditions on Mars were once suitable for microbial life.
The SuperCam instrument, a new and more powerful version of ChemCam, is designed to take Mars exploration to a new level. Like ChemCam, the SuperCam laser will use an infrared beam to heat material to a temperature of around 10,000°C and vaporise it — a method called laser induced breakdown spectroscopy. Coupled with a special camera, this makes it possible to determine the chemical composition of Martian rock samples by measuring the colours of light in the plasma created.
Unlike ChemCam, however, the SuperCam laser can also emit a green laser beam, which will help determine the molecular composition of surface materials. This green beam excites the chemical bonds in samples and produces a different signal according to their various linked components. This analysis technique, known as Raman spectroscopy, will be tested for the first time on Mars and will enable scientists to detect any markers of life. The green laser will also be used to induce fluorescence in mineral and organic compounds, allowing scientists to determine their constituent components with greater accuracy.
“We’re proud to have provided NASA with the first two lasers to operate on Mars. The Mars 2020 mission is a decisive step forward in the study of the Red Planet and preparations for future expeditions. SuperCam, the ‘eyes’ of Perseverance, is the result of close collaboration between partners across the international scientific community. Thales's SuperCam laser delivers unrivalled performance and will enable Perseverance to perform its exploration mission throughout its time on the surface of Mars.” Christophe Salomon, Executive Vice President, Land and Air Systems
About Mars 2020
The goal of the Mars 2020 mission is to study the Red Planet’s surface, search for signs of past life, take rock and dust samples at selected sites and store them for retrieval by the future Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission, which will be conducted jointly with the European Space Agency. Thales Alenia Space is closely involved in the MSR mission.
The Mars 2020 mission is designed to gather the necessary knowledge and test the technologies that will be vital for future human expeditions to the Red Planet.
How to produce oxygen from the Martian atmosphere? What resources are available? Is there water beneath the surface, for example? How to improve landing techniques and characterise weather conditions, dust levels and other environmental conditions that could affect the life and work of future astronauts on Mars? These are just some of the questions the Perseverance mission will seek to answer.
About Thales lasers
For more than 35 years, Thales has been a world leader in design, development and manufacturing of high energy nanosecond lasers for industrial applications and the most powerful ultra-short Ti:Sa femtosecond laser systems for leading scientific applications with peak power up to 10 petawatts.
Thales provides the most reliable and easy-to-use products, a unique combination of technological expertise and robustness for implementation into industrial applications that require highest availability such as laser annealing, laser lift-off, laser shock peening and cutting of composites for various industries such as aerospace, microelectronics, flat panel displays and many others. Thales provides also a full range of services, which are optimized to support each customer.
|
About Thales Thales (Euronext Paris: HO) is a global technology leader shaping the world of tomorrow today. The Group provides solutions, services and products to customers in the aeronautics, space, transport, digital identity and security, and defence markets. With 83,000 employees in 68 countries, Thales generated sales of €19 billion in 2019 (on a pro forma basis including Gemalto over 12 months). Thales is investing in particular in digital innovations — connectivity, Big Data, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity — technologies that support businesses, organisations and governments in their decisive moments. |
PLEASE VISIT
[1] The Irap ; the Laboratoire d’études spatiales et d’instrumentation en astrophysique (LESIA, Observatoire de Paris-PSL/CNRS/SU/Université de Paris) ; the Laboratoire d’astrophysique de Bordeaux (LAB, CNRS/Université de Bordeaux) ; the Laboratoire « atmosphères et observations spatiales » (LATMOS, CNRS/SU/UVSQ) ; l’Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP, CNRS/IRD/Météo-France/Université de Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier) ; the Institut d’astrophysique spatiale (IAS, CNRS/Université Paris-Saclay).
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210215005423/en/
Contact information
PRESS
Thales, Media Relations
Group and Innovation
Alice Pruvot
+33 (0)7 70 27 11 37
alice.pruvot@thalesgroup.com
Thales Alenia Space, Media Relations
Sandrine Bielecki
+33 (0)4 92 92 70 94
sandrine.bielecki@thalesgroup.com
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Ant International’s R2 Enters Brazil, Bringing Embedded Credit Technology to Serve SMBs and Gig Workers27.8.2026 12:00:00 EEST | Press release
R2 today announced its expansion into Brazil, marking the company's entry into Latin America's largest economy. With the support of Ant International, a leading global digital payment, digitisation and FinAI solutions provider, R2 will partner with digital platforms across Brazil to embed working capital solutions directly into the products their merchants and gig workers already use. For digital platforms, marketplaces, payment providers, ecommerce companies, and others serving SMBs and gig workers, R2 provides a proven embedded credit technology solution that enables them to offer financing to their users without building credit operations themselves, and without taking on credit risk. The result is a new revenue stream and a stronger value proposition for their merchant base. For the businesses and workers those platforms serve, it means access to working capital based on how they actually perform, not on documentation that most of them don't have. "Brazil is a defining milestone in
Samsung Display Elevates Gaming Immersion with QD-OLED at Gamescom 202627.8.2026 11:30:00 EEST | Press release
Samsung Display will showcase the gaming performance advantages of QD-OLED through collaborations with global game companies at gamescom 2026, the world’s largest gaming exhibition. The company also announced plans to begin mass production of 24.5-inch QD-OLED panels optimized for eSports and FPS games by the end of this year, underscoring its technology leadership in the gaming monitor market. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260827640374/en/ Visitors experiencing PRAGMATA on gaming monitors featuring Samsung Display’s QD-OLED at the CAPCOM booth during gamescom 2026 Highly anticipated titles from CAPCOM, KRAFTON and CD PROJEKT RED take the stage at gamescom with QD-OLED displays Samsung Display announced on August 27 that it will partner with global game companies including CAPCOM, KRAFTON, and CD PROJEKT RED at gamescom 2026, taking place in Cologne, Germany, from August 26 to 30. New and flagship titles fro
SCP Standard Capital Partners AG: VANEA Defence Unveils ATOMZA®, the First Production-Ready Drone Defence System for Civilian Operators27.8.2026 11:13:00 EEST | Press release
VANEA Defence today unveiled ATOMZA, the world’s first drone defence system designed for civilian deployment that can be operated by private organisations without sovereign enforcement powers. The system opens up a previously inaccessible market for active counter-UAS solutions, which until now have largely been restricted to public security authorities legally authorised to intervene against drones. ATOMZA will make its public debut at Drone Days in Bremen, Germany, on 27th and 28th August. A new category of civilian counter-UAS mitigation ATOMZA uses a non-kinetic optical effector that employs directed photonic radiation to disable a drone’s optical sensors without destroying the aircraft. This approach makes ATOMZA the first solution that can be deployed specifically to mitigate a drone threat without constituting an intervention requiring sovereign enforcement powers. While jammers, high-energy lasers and interceptor drones are legally restricted to authorised security authorities,
Grid Dynamics Appoints Industry Veteran Nikita Ivanov as Head of AI26.8.2026 23:05:00 EEST | Press release
Grid Dynamics Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: GDYN) (“Grid Dynamics”), a premier AI transformation partner for the Fortune 1000, is advancing its AI strategy under the leadership of Nikita Ivanov, Vice President, Head of AI. Ivanov is responsible for leading the transition efforts of Grid Dynamics’ clients toward an AI-native software delivery model, and he oversees all elements of Grid Dynamics AI Native (GAIN) platforms. Ivanov brings more than two decades of experience founding and leading technology companies to his role as Vice President, Head of AI. He founded and led GridGain, a distributed computing company built for in-memory data processing. During his 15-year tenure at GridGain, Ivanov also founded the natural language processing framework Apache NLPCraft and, later, Humatron AI, an AI workforce platform. He then served as Field CTO for GenAI at DataStax. That same pattern of building foundational tools now runs through Grid Dynamics’ own AI-SDLC tools, Allium, Rosetta, and SpecFlow
Arc'teryx Introduces System 0™, a New Framework for the Future of Product Design and Circularity26.8.2026 16:00:00 EEST | Press release
Arc'teryx Equipment, the global design company specializing in technical high-performance apparel and equipment, today introduced System 0™, a new framework that reimagines how products can be designed, manufactured, used, repaired, and ultimately regenerated. System 0 represents the next evolution for sustainability in the outdoor industry, as it embeds circular thinking across an entire product lifecycle while maintaining the uncompromising performance standards that define the Arc’teryx brand. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260826686539/en/ Arc’teryx athlete, Craig Murray, wearing the Sperro SV, a multisport mountain-grade hardshell built with circular design principles, available September 4, 2026. The first product being introduced as part of the System 0 platform is the Sperro SV jacket, a multisport mountain-grade hardshell engineered for durability, repairability, and disassembly at end of life – the
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom