FMI provides pressure and humidity instrumentation for NASA’s Mars 2020 mission

The Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) has provided pressure and humidity measurement equipment for NASA’s new Mars Rover, set to launch in 2020. FMI’s instrumentation will use Vaisala’s Barocap and Humicap pressure and humidity sensor heads to gather accurate readings of pressure and humidity in the extreme environmental conditions of the Martian atmosphere. The Mars 2020 mission is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program and aims to gather more knowledge on the Martian environment. The new equipment will complement the already existing measurement tools on Mars, taken there by the Curiosity Rover in 2012. While working on Mars, Curiosity and the Mars 2020 Rover will create a small-scale observation network, which will serve as a template for the more extensive MetNet Observation Network planned for the future. Liisa Åström, vice president, products and systems for Vaisala, said, “We are very proud that Vaisala’s equipment has again been selected as an affiliate for space exploration that will help us understand the world around us. Accurate and reliable measurements are key to this understanding and Vaisala’s strength is exactly that. Our sensors function reliably and accurately, even in the extreme conditions on Mars.”