Remote sensing by satellites is the most major tool in earth observation. In recent decades, governments and the private sector have invested billions in earth surveillance satellite missions. Environmental and agricultural surveillance requires multi-spectral visible, NIR, SWIR, and thermal imagery. Traditionally imagery satellites equipped with a bulky high-resolution camera resulted in heavy and expensive satellite weights of hundreds and even more then 1000 Kg. Researchers suggest, distributing the spectral bands between different small, low-cost nanosatellites. Nano-satellites are 1-10 kg satellites with a typical dimension of 10 cm. Its low weight allows low-cost missions, where tens of such satellites send to a low-altitude orbit. A flock of such small satellites may work together to cover large areas with high spatial resolution. In this configuration, the hyperspectral cube will result from registrations of the monochromatic and the panchromatic images taken by the different nanosatellites of the flock.

UNMET NEED
While nanosatellites allow low-cost, high-resolution monitoring of the earth, their small volume and payload limit its use to only a few spectral bands, commonly RGB.  In most cases, multi-spectral and thermal imagery is left to the more traditional and expensive satellite missions. 
 
OUR SOLUTION
The proposed system is a flock of nanosatellites where each nanosatellite is equipped with a single monochromatic camera. The flock may include sensors in various ranges, and the mixture will determine by application. The hyperspectral cube will determine by post-processing the imagery data and navigation data. The resolution of the images, such as in the LWIR, will be post-processed by a super-resolution algorithm.

APPLICATIONS
To date satellite imagery covers the world, used for a variety of needs, to name a few mapping services like google earth, Fire surveillance, Environmental monitoring of forests and oceans, and agricultural remote sensing for crop status, etc. Satellite imagery is also applied for Military and Security aspects.

STATUS
Initial proof of concept

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
HYPERSPECTRAL IMAGING METHOD AND SYSTEM USING A FLOCK OF SMALL SATELLITES, US provisional No. 63/447,682, Priority Date 23 Feb 2023