P060-05
1-Meter Resolution Hyperspectral Thermal Infrared Imager Concept for Lunar Polar Exploration

Monday, 14 December 2020: 16:16
Virtual
Chiara Ferrari-Wong1,2, Paul G Lucey2, Robert Wright2, Miguel A Nunes3, Casey I Honniball4, Paul Ottinger Hayne5, Benjamin T Greenhagen6, Timothy D Glotch7, Joshua T Cahill8 and Charles Hibbitts6, (1)University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Earth Sciences, Honolulu, HI, United States, (2)University of Hawaii at Manoa, Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, Honolulu, HI, United States, (3)University of Hawaii at Manoa, Hawaii Space Flight Laboratory, Honolulu, HI, United States, (4)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (5)University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, United States, (6)Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, United States, (7)Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, United States, (8)JHU/APL, Laurel, MD, United States
Recorded Presentation
Abstract:
Beginning in 2021, NASA’s Artemis program will send a suite of science instruments and technology demonstrations to the lunar surface, beginning with the South Pole, in search of resources like water and other volatiles that will be needed for long-term exploration. Hyperspectral imaging at the 1-meter spatial scale, enabled by the combination of abundant photon flux at thermal wavelengths and modern infrared arrays at high speed data readouts, enables compositional identification and classification of geologic features as small as individual boulders at polar landing sites, important for geologic sampling and analysis.

We have conducted a design study for a hyperspectral imager based on an instrument being built at the University of Hawaii as a 6U CubeSat for NASA ESTO called HyTI (1). Modified for lunar exploration at a spectral range of 5.5-10 microns, this instrument would be sensitive to the Christiansen Feature, making it able to distinguish between major rock-forming silicates. At 6 microns, it is sensitive to the water absorption feature. The instrument will also measure the time of day variations in the temperature of the lunar surface at high spatial and time resolution for thermophysical studies.

By operating in a lunar orbit of 10 km, this instrument yields 1-m resolution, with 20 cm-1 wavenumber spectral resolution. A high speed readout array operating at a frame rate of 2000 Hz with a 256x640 window would provide submeter frame advances and a 640-m swath width, sufficient to capture more of a typical landing site in one pass. A signal-to-noise of around 200 is achievable 1-m spatial resolution, sufficient for silicate mineralogy characterization and mapping of water.

Our design study shows 1-meter scale spectral imaging of polar landing sites to characterize silicate mineralogy and possibly water is feasible and would revolutionize traverse planning for future missions.

(1) Wright et al. HyTI: Thermal Hyperspectral Imaging from a CubeSat Platform, Proc. SPIE: CubeSats and SmallSats for Remote Sensing III, 11131, 2019.

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