Optical Surfaces Ltd. has reported the use of a motorized UV-Vis-NIR collimator and interferometric alignment system supplied to the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) in Berlin, Germany. It has been used to set-up the groundbreaking DLR Earth Sensing Imaging Spectrometer (DESIS).
On 23 October 2019, DLR the renowned German Aerospace Center, and the U.S. company Teledyne Brown Engineering (TBE) announced the start of routine operations for DESIS on the International Space Station. DESIS is the most powerful hyperspectral Earth observation instrument in orbit and will be utilized in a large range of applications. Equipped with high-resolution imaging capabilities, its data will enable the development of measures for environmental protection and support the more efficient, ecological use of agricultural land.
The sensor system collects image data at 400 km and in 235 closely spaced spectral bands from onboard the International Space Station (ISS). It has a ground resolution of 30 meters and a spectral resolution of 2.55 nanometers. This significantly increases the depth of information available in Earth observation data.