Mars Rover Curiosity Equipped with Pressure and Humidity Sensors

As NASA's Mars Curiosity rover is examining the soil in the Gale Crater to see if it ever offered conditions favourable for supporting life, Vaisala's (Finland) pressure and humidity sensors onboard the rover are also hard at work. The sensors are on Mars as a part of instrumentation designed by the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), and they are used to gather pressure and humidity readings in the extreme environmental conditions of the Martian atmosphere.

Vaisala has provided the project with standard Vaisala HUMICAP humidity sensors and specially customised Vaisala BAROCAP pressure sensors. First introduced in 1973, Vaisala HUMICAP was the world's first thin-film capacitive humidity sensor and a radical innovation that changed humidity measurements for good. Similarly, Vaisala BAROCAP was developed in early 1980s as a new pressure-sensing technology based on silicon processing.

Both sensor technologies are used widely in Vaisala's own humidity and pressure sensing products and systems. Thanks to their superior long-term stability and accuracy as well as their ability to tolerate dust, chemicals and otherwise harsh environmental conditions, the technologies are especially suitable for demanding industrial applications used by a wide range of industries from power and steel to life science and building automation.