Lots of good content in Space Science Reviews lately (vol. 221). Now posted:
Popescu, M. M. de Léon, J. Prodan, G. P. et al. HyperScout-H: The Hyperspectral Imager for the ESA Hera Mission art. 112 s11214-025-01237-8
The asteroid mission Hera (to the Didymos-Dimorphos binary system) carries the HyperScout-H instrument. Besides “just” simple imaging, HyperScout will perform colorimetry/crude spectroscopy. That is, the instrument will record colors with far more fidelity and distinctions than the simple Red-Green-Blue of terrestrial, consumer “color” electronics. How much more? HS-H will take 25 colors, not three, and over a better (more telling) range. The instrument’s bandwidth covers ~650 nm (“red” to humans) to ~950nm (in the near-infrared). I wish it was a bit further into the infrared, but that would require a seriously upgraded, more expensive project.
Unfortunately, Space Sci Rev has paywalled the paper. Fortunately, the authors have posted a preprint on the arXiv.org site (arxiv.org/abs/2511.08047). What’s the difference? In general, Space Sci Rev is a prestigious name and will refuse to let sloppy work pass through the gate it’s keeping. Meanwhile, arXiv.org is like a bulletin board, and only does cursory checks. As I’ve mentioned, twice, keep your guard up when reading arXiv. In this particular case, I’ll speculate: the arXiv draft is only a few days back-dated, compared to the Space Sci Rev version. It seems to me that the earlier arXiv document can’t be that far off the official Space Sci Rev release.