Materion Business Nominated for NASA Group Achievement Award

Date Announced: 19 Feb 2013

Optics and thin-film coatings division built set of filters used by Curiosity rover's "MASTCAM".

WESTFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Mars Rover (Curiosity) project team at Materion Barr Precision Optics & Thin Film Coatings’ Westford, Massachusetts facility, has been nominated for the NASA Group Achievement Award. This prestigious NASA honor is awarded to any combination of government and/or non-government individuals for an outstanding group accomplishment that has contributed substantially to NASA’s mission.

Curiosity is a key part of the Mars Space Lab mission launched in November 2011. Materion’s assignment involved building a set of filters for the MASTCAM camera aboard the craft. These are extremely high performing, low defect state-of-the-art filters used to enhance the camera’s imaging capabilities. The camera was produced by Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) with which Materion has a long-standing relationship.

The work team, all members of the Space, Science & Astronomy unit of the Westford Operations Group, was led by Dave Harrison, Program Manager, and consisted of: John Potter, Senior Design Engineer; Jim Gaillardetz, Senior Technician; Paul McTeague, Engineering Technician; Kevin Downing, Product Line Manager; David Green, Applications Engineer and Evelyn Stull, Applications Engineering Manager.

With its heritage as a world leader in thin film optics, Materion has provided custom filters and arrays for many previous Mars missions. These include Mars Observer (1992), Mars Global Surveyor (1996), Mars Pathfinder and Sojourner (1996), Mars Climate Orbiter (1998), Mars Polar Lander (1999), Mars Odyssey (2001), Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity (2003) and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (2005). Other Materion businesses, including Materion Brush Beryllium & Composites, have supplied materials for earlier NASA Mars missions.

Commenting about the nomination, Robert Naranjo, Strategic Business Unit Vice President, Materion Barr Precision Optics & Thin Film Coatings, said, “We are pleased by this honor and proud of the dedicated Materion employees that earned it. We understand that NASA selects teams that effectively manage costs and schedules and achieve a high level of customer satisfaction. This nomination reflects highly on the quality of the participants, their work and the company as a whole.”

Source: Materion

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