In the near future, a unique hyperspectrometer will be installed on the Russian segment of the International Space Station, which, as part of a scientific experiment, “Hurricane” will help solve problems associated with remote sensing of land with orbit.
On the control booth of the Rocket and Space Corporation “Energy” named after S.P. Queen (part of the state corporation “Roskosmos”) are now undergoing complex tests of this equipment. They must confirm the readiness of the equipment to work on board the ISS.
The hyperspectrometer consists of three main parts: an instrumentation module, a special bracket for fastening it to the porthole station and software for the management of scientific instruments. The last two elements were developed on the technical task of the Energy Rocket and Space Corporation in the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and the apparatural module designed to shoot the earth’s surface in the spectral ranges – in the company “Lepton”.
Various natural phenomena, as well as human activity leave after themselves traces, imperceptible with ordinary digital shooting. Another thing is a hyperspectral shooting that can be convened to compare with a microscope that allows you to penetrate into the fine structure of the object being removed and accordingly get much more information about it.
Space hyperspectrometry is widely used to solve the problems of global and regional ecology, rural, forestry and water management, monitoring various emergencies. For example, due to its capabilities, a hyperspectrometer may not just show the boundaries of forest arrays, but also provide information on the composition of its individual trees.
Different tasks are solved at the station at the station, including testing technologies and equipment for automatic spacecraft. This is a connection, satellite navigation and of course remote sensing of the Earth. This practice has long ago, starting from the Salute station, “says the boss Department of providing space experiments and mathematical modeling of the RKK “Energy” Mikhail Belyaev.
International Space Station is a universal laboratory in weightlessness, where astronauts, as laboratory technicians on Earth, under the leadership of scientists can always quickly make changes to the stages of the design tests before its introduction into production. In the same place, directly on board the station, the results of the hyperspectrometer shooting will be underway, which will allow you to more quickly analyze information, improve the quality of observation planning and reduce the flows of data transmitted to earth.