© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, SwitzerlandJiménez, J. J.Boland, J.Lemmon, M. T.García Menéndez, ElisaRivas, J.Azcue, J.Bastide, L.Andrés Santiuste, N.Martínez Oter, J.González Guerrero, M.Toledo, D.Álvarez Rios, F. J.Serrano, F.Martín Vodopivec, B.Manzano, J.López Heredero, R.Carrasco, I.Aparicio, S.Carretero, Á.MacDonald, D. R.Moore, L. B.Alcacera Gil, María ÁngelesFernández Viguri, J. A.Martín, I.Yela González, M.Álvarez, M.Manzano, P.Martín, J. A.Reina, M.Urquí, R.Rodríguez Manfredi, J. A.De la Torre Juárez, M.Córdoba, E.Leiter, R.Thompson, A.Madsen, S.Smith, M. D.Viúdez Moreiras, DanielSaix López, A.Sánchez Lavega, A.Apéstigue, VíctorGómez Martín, L.Gonzalo Melchor, AlejandroMartínez, G. M.de Mingo Martín, José RamónGómez Elvira, J.Martín-Ortega, AlbertoArruego, I.del Hoyo Gordillo, Juan CarlosMartín-Ortega, AlbertoGonzález Hernández, CarmenMartín-Ortega, Alberto2023-03-072023-03-072022-04-10Sensors 22(8): 2907(2022)https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/22/8/2907http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12666/844The Radiation and Dust Sensor is one of six sensors of the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer onboard the Perseverance rover from the Mars 2020 NASA mission. Its primary goal is to characterize the airbone dust in the Mars atmosphere, inferring its concentration, shape and optical properties. Thanks to its geometry, the sensor will be capable of studying dust-lifting processes with a high temporal resolution and high spatial coverage. Thanks to its multiwavelength design, it will characterize the solar spectrum from Mars’ surface. The present work describes the sensor design from the scientific and technical requirements, the qualification processes to demonstrate its endurance on Mars’ surface, the calibration activities to demonstrate its performance, and its validation campaign in a representative Mars analog. As a result of this process, we obtained a very compact sensor, fully digital, with a mass below 1 kg and exceptional power consumption and data budget features.engAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internationalhttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/MarsMars 2020MEDARDSDustCloudsAtmosphereOzoneinfo:eu-repo/semantics/article10.3390/s220829071424-8220info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess