[S-RD24] Cutting-edge sensing technology applied to geology and resource exploration

[SRD24-P06] Geological and resource exploration with micro-satellite

*Yukihiro Takahashi¹ (1.Department of Cosmosciences, Graduate School of Science, Hokkaido University)

Keywords:geology, resource exploration, micro-satellite

Satellite remote-sensing is useful for global survey in geological study and resource exploration. Now the smaller optical instruments on board 50-kg micro-satellite has high performance in high-resolution spectral imaging. Also very precise attitude control became possible which enables the target pointing with telescope mounted on the satellite body. We can take images for any location once or twice a day over the world only with one micro-satellite. The cost of fabrication is about 1/100 of the conventional satellite and we could launch it within about 2 years from the time funded. Hyperspectral sensor which can measure 10s – 100s of bands at one time, which is very useful for identification of mineral types. On the other hand, S/N ratio tends to be small and the ground resolution is about 20m or more at minimum. Also the increase of data amount is a problem because the data transfer rate is the rate-limiting factor for the amount of data that can be retrieved. In many cases not all 100s bands is needed for type identification but only several important bands are enough. Our spectral camera can chose any center wavelength in 400-1000 nm with band width of 10-20nm using liquid crystal tunable filter. During passing over the place of interest, we can capture necessary several to 10 bands by precise target pointing. By that way, the data amount is almost same as traditional color imaging, but high level classification could be possible. In this presentation, we would show the potential of this method and discuss the possible application in geology or resource exploration.