The SPectral Imaging (SPIM) facility in support of hyperspectral observations of solar system bodies: Preliminary characterization

摘要

The SPectral IMaging (SPIM) facility is a laboratory imaging VIS-IR spectrometer, operative in the INAF/IAPS laboratory in Rome. The facility is used as a laboratory support for the DAWN mission (to the asteroids Vesta and Ceres) and for the 2018 ExoMars mission (to Mars). This imaging spectrometer, which is the spare of the VIR spectrometer [1,2] on-board the DAWN spacecraft, is operative in the 0.22-5.05 μm spectral range. It is characterized by high spatial (38 μm) and spectral (2 nm in the VIS channel, 12 nm in the IR channel) resolution. The high spectral performances, combined with the high spatial resolution imaging capability of this instrument allow a very accurate laboratory investigation and characterization of numerous types of mineral and rock samples, both in powder and in slab form, and also of extra-terrestrial samples, down to a few tens of micrometers in size.