Hyperspectral Thermal Imager (HyTI) instrument. Credit: HSFL/UH News
The Hawaiʻi Space Flight Laboratory (HSFL) at UH Mānoa has secured $8 million from NASA to demonstration space technology that measures the chemical composition of gases, rocks, and soils on Earth. The project has been awarded funding through NASA’s In-Space Validation of Earth Science Technologies program—one of only 15 awarded since 2012.
The technology built by HSFL is a Hyperspectral Thermal Imager (HyTI), a high-performance interferometer instrument that will observeEarth’s surface and atmosphere from an altitude of about 250 miles. HyTI will deliver higher image resolution than Landsat 9—currently the only U.S. satellite observing Earth’s surface—and help advance the study of Earth systems. HyTI will launch as part of a SpaceX mission in early 2024.