Onboard Product Generation on Earth Observing One: A Pathfinder for the Proposed Hyspiri Mission Intelligent Payload Module

The proposed HyspIRI mission is evaluating a X-band Direct Broadcast capability that would enable data to be delivered to ground stations virtually as it is acquired. However the HyspIRI VSWIR and TIR instruments are expected to produce over 800 × 10⁶ bits per second of data while the Direct Broadcast capability is approximately 10 × 10⁶ bits per second for a ~ 80x oversubscription. In order to address this data throughput mismatch a Direct Broadcast concept called the Intelligent Payload Module (IPM) has been developed to determine which data to downlink based on both the type of surface the spacecraft is overlying and onboard processing of the data to detect events. For example, when the spacecraft is overlying polar regions it might downlink a snow/ice product. Additionally the onboard software would search for thermal signatures indicative of a volcanic event or wild fire and downlink summary information (extent, spectra) when detected. Earth Observing One (EO-1) has served as a test bed and pathfinder for this type of onboard product generation. As part of the Autonomous Sciencecraft (ASE), EO-1 implemented in ίight software the ability to analyze and develop products for a limited swath of the Hyperion hyperspectral instrument onboard the spacecraft. In a series of technology demonstrations that became part of the operational EO-1 system over 5000 science products have been generated onboard EO-1 and down linked via engineering S-band contacts, a routine automated process that continues to this day. We describe the onboard products demonstrated in EO-1 operations and show how they have paved the way for the HyspIRI Intelligent Payload Module concept.