Onboard processor for compressing HSI data

As HSI (hyperspectral imaging) sensor technology continues to mature, the ever-increasing amounts of sensor data generated will result in a need for more cost effective communication and data handling systems. Lockheed Martin, with considerable experience in spacecraft design and in developing special purpose onboard processors, has teamed with Applied Signal & Image Technology (ASIT), which has extensive heritage in HSI, to develop a real-time and intelligent onboard processing (OBP) system to reduce HSI sensor downlink requirements. Our goal is to reduce the downlink requirement by a factor >100, while retaining the necessary spectral fidelity of the sensor data needed to satisfy the many science, military, and intelligence goals of these systems. Our spectral compression technique leverages commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) spectral exploitation algorithms for segmentation, material identification and spectral compression that ASIT has developed. Other commercially available COTS software for spatial compression will also be employed as part of the overall compression processing sequence.