Hauppauge firm works with NASA on Mars spacecraft

BY GARY DYMSKI | Newsday Staff Writer

Tony Pirera, President of Spectrum Thin Films poses with an optical lens used on the Mars spacecraft. (Newsday / Daniel Goodrich)

When the Phoenix Mars Lander spacecraft touches down on the Red Planet later this month, it will do so with a small slice of Long Island pride.

That's because the Phoenix Lander, part of NASA's scout program for the exploration of Mars, features the labors of Spectrum Thin Films Inc., a Hauppauge manufacturer of optics and optical coatings for government agencies, research organizations and a variety of commercial clients.

"It is exciting," owner Tony Pirera said of his company's link to the Mars Lander, which is scheduled to touch down in a valley in the Martian arctic on May 25. "When it lands, there will be a lot of media attention, and to know you've made a contribution to the project is special."

Spectrum Thin Films, which moved its 32 employees to a new 16,000-square-foot Hauppauge lab last month, coated lenses on the lander's surface stereo imaging camera and two test-imaging devices, a robotic arm camera and an optical microscope. The coatings increase light transmission so that objects in space can be viewed more clearly, Pirera said.

The company's move was based largely on growth; annual revenues have climbed, from about $2 million in 2005 to $2.5 million last year, Pirera said. Projected revenues for 2008 are likely to exceed $3 million.

Harry Sudwischer, Spectrum's head of technical sales, said the company won the $100,000 project two years ago and worked with scientists at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory to meet specifications. The Phoenix Mars Lander program is under the supervision of the Arizona lab under a contract with NASA.

"This work takes a lot of testing, a lot of precision," Sudwischer said. "When [the Phoenix Mars Lander] lands and all the images from Mars are clear, we'll know we've done our job."

Roger Tanner, chief engineer for cameras on the spacecraft and a senior engineer at the University of Arizona lab, said Spectrum Thin Films was one of the few companies in the bidding process that seemed excited about the project.

"Not many companies were interested in such small quantities of lenses and the small sizes, about 7 to 8 millimeters in diameter," Tanner said. "But Tony was very enthusiastic and interested, and when you are working with such challenging specifications, that goes a long way."

Spectrum Thin Films also has won a $20,000 bid for coatings on NASA's James Web Space Telescope, scheduled for launch in 2013, Pirera said, and is working on coating mirrors for GreenVolts, a San Francisco-based company whose focus is building photovoltaic (solar electric) power plants.

Pirera, who started the company in 1993, said being associated with the Phoenix Mars mission also provides a sense of personal satisfaction. "You always seem to read about Long Island's eroding technology base," he said, "but this shows that Long Island is staying on top of high-tech applications."