SPECTRAL SCIENCES, INC — Department of Defense SBIR Phase II: AF131-146

Description

ABSTRACT: Battlespace awareness through on-orbit remote detection and classification of energetic events and objects such as missile launches, bomb blasts, artillery fire and aircraft could provide intelligence on adversaries in near real-time to military commanders. Currently deployed space-based imaging systems lack the spatial, spectral, and temporal resolution necessary for optimal target detection and classification. Spectral Sciences Inc. (SSI) proposes to address the need by developing the Battlespace Large Area Spectral-imaging Transient-event (BLAST) sensor for on-orbit targeting of dynamic events and battlefield objects under suboptimal conditions. BLAST combines Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) characterization and Hypertemporal Imaging (HTI) flash detection to provide event location and characterization threat maps for both battlespace awareness and strategic missile warning. In Phase I, we demonstrated the utility of fast framing multiplexing imagery to the detection and classification of battlespace events and presented a set of specifications for on-orbit design. In Phase II, we propose to design, construct, test, and field demonstrate a prototype sensor and to advance the state-of-the-art in detection, characterization, and remote sensing simulation. BLAST will provide the Air Force with both a field testing hardware capability and with a platform design modeling capability. BENEFIT: BLAST sensor has a strong commercialization potential. The technology developed for the BLAST sensor could potentially revolutionize the spectral sensing marketplace by providing fast, rugged, mechanically stable and quickly adaptable systems for point and imaging spectroscopy with applications ranging from petrochemical industry to combustion analysis, environmental sensing and biomedical imaging. Regarding government applications not directly related to space-based monitoring, the proposed BLAST system approach is expected to find applications related to standoff sensing as applied to the detection and identification of gunfire, chemical/biological threat monitoring, flare combustion monitoring for petrochemical industry, environmental pollution sensing and in medical biomedical imaging for diagnostic and research purposes.