Hyperspectral sensor HSC3000 for nano-satellite TAIKI

Hokkaido Satellite Project was kicked off at April in 2003 by the volunteer group that consists of students, researchers and engineers in order to demonstrate the space business models using nanosatellites of 15kg/50kg in Japan. The Hokkaido satellite named "TAIKI" is characterized by a hyperspectral sensor with a VNIR (visible and near infrared range) and a laser communication instrument for data downlink communication. At the beginning of 2008 we started to develop a space qualified hyperspectral sensor HSC3000 based on the optical design of HSC1700. Last year we developed the hyperspectral camera HSC-3000 BBM funded by New Energy Development Organization (NEDO) as the position of the breadboard model of HSC3000. HSC-3000 BBM is specified by the spectral range from 400nm to 1000nm, 81 spectral bands, image size of 640 x 480 pixels, radiometric resolution of 10 bits and data transfer rate of 200 f/s. By averaging outputs of several adjacent pixels to increase S/N, HSC3000 of the spaceborne is targeted at the specification of 30 m spatial resolution, 61 spectral bands, 10 nm spectral resolution and S/N300. Spin-off technology of the hyperspectral imager is also introduced. We have succeeded to develop a hyperspectral camera as the spin-off product named HSC1700 which installs both the hyperspectral sensor unit and a scanning mechanism inside. The HSC1700 is specified by the spectral range from 400nm to 800nm, 81 spectral bands, image size of 640 x 480 pixels, radiometric resolution of 8 bits and data transfer rate of 30 f/s.