Sustainable Land Imaging Technology
Building the Future of Landsat
The Sustainable Land Imaging – Technology program supports innovative technology development for new Landsat-like instruments, sensors, components and measurement concepts.
Since 1972, the Landsat series of satellites, jointly run by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey, has provided the longest continuous record of Earth’s land areas from space. Landsat data provides consistent and reliable multispectral measurements of land and coastal regions for scientific research, policy and commercial uses.
Innovations for the future
To assure Landsat-like measurements in future decades, NASA initiated the Sustainable Land Imaging – Technology Program. The program has roots in a 2013 report from the National Research Council – Landsat and Beyond: Sustaining and Enhancing the Nation’s Land Imaging Program – that detailed a number of recommendations for sustainable land imaging.
The SLI-T program issued its first competitive solicitation in December 2015 and awarded six projects out of 33 proposals in August 2016.
The solicitation seeks proposals in two categories:
- Advanced Technology Demonstrations (ATD): These projects provide improved and innovative instrument concepts for potential infusion into the architecture and design of Landsat-10.
- Technology Investments (TI): These projects develop and mature component or breadboard-level technologies that have long-term potentials to significantly improve future land imaging instruments.
SLI-T Project Highlights
Compact Multispectral Imaging
The Reduced Envelope Multispectral Imager (REMI) project at Ball Aerospace is developing a conceptual multispectral imager for the Landsat 10 mission that could be up to 30-times smaller, 10-times lighter, and use 6-times less power than the Operational Land Imager (OLI) currently on board the Landsat 8 satellite.
Integrated Photonic Imaging Spectrometer
Employing lithographically patterned photonic waveguide technology, this new spectrometer that aims to be 7 times lighter and 25 times smaller than current instruments and that enables image acquisition in spectral bands and modes that surpass current Landsat capabilities.
Advanced Technology Land Imaging Spectroradiometer
ATLIS is a compact, low mass design with wide field of view, fast optics, large format, small detector digital Focal Plane Array that meets or exceeds Visible Short Wave Infra Red requirements.
Solicitations
SLI-T uses the NASA Research Announcement as its investment vehicle. Links to the full solicitations and awards are listed below.
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SLI-T Solicitations
| Solicitation | Link To Solicitation | Link To Award |
|---|---|---|
| SLI-T ROSES 2022 | Solicitation Withdrawn | - |
| SLI-T ROSES 2019 | Solicitation (link) | Awarded Projects |
| SLI-T ROSES 2015 | Solicitation (link) | Awarded Projects |