The HYPespectral Stereo Observing System

The HYPerspectral Stereo Observing System (HYPSOS) is a novel remote sensing pushbroom instrument able to give simultaneously both 3D spatial and spectral information of the observed features. HYPSOS is a very compact instrument, which makes it attractive for both possible planetary observation and for its use on a nanosat, e.g. for civilian applications. This instrument collects light from two different perspectives, as a classical pushbroom stereocamera, which allows one to achieve the three-dimensional model of the observed surface, and then to extract the spectral information from each resolved element, thus obtaining a full 4-dimensional hypercube dataset. To demonstrate the actual performance of this novel type of instrument, we realized a HYPSOS prototype, that is an instrument breadboard to be tested in a laboratory environment. For checking its performance, we setup an optical facility representative of a possible flight configuration. In this paper we provide a description of HYPSOS concept, of its opto-mechanical design and of the ground support equipment used to characterize the instrument. Some preliminary results are described.