Established in Providence in 1921, Meller Optics is an optics manufacturer serving defense, medical, laser and industrial markets. With the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA, among its longtime clients, Meller is involved with VIPER, NASA’s new moon rover. Ahead of Artemis astronauts arriving on the lunar surface in 2024, VIPER is creating resource maps for human exploration. Dale DeJoy leads Meller Optics’ business development efforts.
PBN: Meller Optics’ relationship with NASA began in the 1960s. Has it influenced the kind of work you do and the kind of research Meller embarks upon?
DEJOY: It has influenced us. In the early 1960s, Meller stated fabricating ruby laser rods. This was a natural fit, due to experience with our work grinding and polishing of gemstones for the jewelry industry. Since then, Meller Optics has been involved with many research programs with not only space applications, but also defense programs as well.
In the 1970s, Meller worked on internal optic prototypes for then newly developing infrared missile technologies.
PBN: Your products, IR [Infrared Radiation] and broadband optics can be custom-fabricated to customers’ specifications, utilizing various materials, for LIDAR, or Light-Detecting and Ranging devices. How do customers use them?
DEJOY: Sapphire optics is our core business. Sapphire is used for visible to mid-wave infrared transmissive optical applications. This coupled with its durability lends itself for demanding applications.
In the 1980s, Meller Optics manufactured the external window for the DSMAC Tomahawk Cruise Missile for McDonnell Douglas. In the 1990s, we manufactured sapphire missile domes for Raytheon missile systems and in the 2000s, produced sapphire lenses for the Kepler space telescope lens array. Over the past few years, the company has been working with the Navy on possible future undersea optics. We also provide sapphire windows that are maximized for specific wavelengths with optical coating for use on gimbaled systems [supports that allow for rotation] used on unmanned airborne vehicles.
Meller also produces long-wave infrared transmissive optics, including optical components for LIDAR systems. These systems are used in mining as they can penetrate the ground and literally find gold and other precious metals and minerals.
PBN: Can you give us a summary of NASA’s VIPER Lunar Rover, and why Meller Optics’s sapphire lens is best suited for such work?
DEJOY: NASA’s VIPER lunar rover – a mobile, unmanned robot – will explore the South Pole of the moon to mine for ice to generate water, air and ultimately, fuel for hydrogen batteries in the ultimate quest for living on the moon and using it as a connection to Mars. Meller’s sapphire lenses are of the extreme quality that’s needed to provide this kind of visual inspection at a high multiple zoom. Also, sapphire is uniquely suited to withstand the extreme cold and the variation of temperatures on the moon.
PBN: Sapphire is only second to diamond in terms of strength and durability, is that accurate?
DEJOY: Correct, at least in regard to crystal materials.
PBN: We understand Meller Optics has had a role in manufacturing a piece of something connected to a topic in the news a lot these days: COVID-19 test kits.
DEJOY: Yes, Meller is the sole source of cell windows for [Indianapolis-based] Beckman Coulter Life Sciences, a biomedical testing company. The cell windows are utilized to separate cells – primarily blood cells – in the search for a vaccine and otherwise effective medicines to fight COVID-19.
Susan Shalhoub is a PBN contributing writer.
