Extraterrestrial Research

We develop sensors for space exploration. These are used on various platforms such as satellites and rovers.

BepiColombo Mission - MERTIS

MERTIS (MErcury Radiometer and Thermal Infrared Spectrometer) is a scientific instrument for ESA's BepiColombo deep-space mission. BepiColombo was launched to Mercury in 2018 and has been observing the planet since 2023. The instrument was developed and built by the DLR Institute of Optical Sensor Systems.

CHEOPS Mission

The CHEOPS space telescope has been observing extrasolar planets since 2020. CHEOPS examines several hundred bright stars around which planets have already been discovered - but now with a high-precision photometry that was not possible before. CHEOPS stands for CHaracterizing ExOPlanet Satellite and is a project of the European Space Agency ESA.

MMX Mission - RAX

Raman Spectrometer for MMX (RAX) is a scientific instrument for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) robotic spacecraft Martian Moons eXploration (MMX), which will be launched in 2024. The DLR Institute of Optical Sensor Systems (OS) is leading both the scientific team and the development of the instrument.

PLATO Mission

PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) is a mission within the ESA's Cosmic Vision program. Its aim is to find and study a large number of extrasolar planetary systems, focusing on the properties of terrestrial planets in the habitable zone around sun-like stars.

EnVision Mission - VenSpec-M

The Venus Mapping Spectrometer (VenSpec-M) is part of a spectrometer suite of ESA's EnVision mission, which will be launched in 2031. VenSpec-M was developed to focus on mapping the surface of Venus in the spectral range around 1 micrometer. The OS Institute is responsible for the design, manufacture, assembly and verification of the instrument.

VERITAS Mission - VEM

VEM is one of the two core scientific instruments of VERITAS, a NASA mission to observe Venus. The development of VEM is being led by two DLR institutes in Berlin, the Institute of Optical Sensor Systems and the Institute of Planetary Researc.