Published:15.01.2025
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Czech statelite TROLL is heading into space

The first Czech satellite with a hyperspectral camera will detect illegal landfills, pollution of watercourses, damage to vegetation, and could protect millions of people threatened by glacial lake outburst. The TROLL satelite was launched into space by SpaceX's Falcon rocket on 14 January 2025.

Czech Republic has become one among the few countries with its own satellite equipped with a hyperspectral camera named TROLL. The high quality images that the hyperspectral camera will take will significantly improve the possibilities of monitoring and analysis of various phenomena on the territory of the Czech Republic and beyond.

The first Czech customer to use data from the TROLL satellite is the Czech Environmental Inspectorate. Thanks to the hyperspectral imagery, the Czech Republic will obtain detailed and accurate information for its surveillance activities. It will better detect illegal landfills, construction sites, deforestation, pollution of watercourses, and also gain a tool for precise monitoring of vegetation. This is possible thanks to the highly advanced technology that the hyperspectral camera possesses. In fact, unlike a conventional camera, it can capture light in dozens of spectral bands at once, with each point of the image containing detailed information about the reflected light in different wavelengths, allowing you to "see" the properties of materials that are invisible to the naked eye or conventional cameras - for example, the chemical composition or moisture content of objects. TRL Space collaborates with the Faculty of Science of Charles University, the TilSpec team and Gisat on the project, which is funded with state support from the Czech Technology Agency and the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic under the Environment for Life Programme.

"In addition to the aforementioned cooperation with the Czech Environmental Inspectorate, this year we are preparing a unique research project together with Charles University, the University of Heidelberg and the University of Milan, through which hyperspectral images from the TROLL satellite should help not only to identify supraglacial lakes in Greenland or Antarctica, but especially to monitor indicators that may cause their rupture. Indeed, more than 15 million people living in glacial areas are currently at risk from water from these lakes. The expedition, in which the partners will conduct on-site surveys in addition to satellite imagery, is planned for June this year," says Petr Kapoun, representative of TRL Space, a company which stands behind TROLLS's development. 

The company will be working on the project with the GLAM (Glacier Landscape Analysis and Geohazards Monitoring with Earth Observation) team, consisting of researchers working, among others, at the Faculty of Science of Charles University.

With the launch of its own commercial satellite, TRL Space confirms its role as a system integrator - a company capable of building a complete satellite. The TROLL satellite is equipped not only with a hyperspectral camera, but also with advanced artificial intelligence software developed by sister startup Zaitra. This software will enable data processing directly on board the satellite, speeding up analysis and increasing mission efficiency. The security of communications between the satellite and the Earth will be ensured by a new encryption system from Corac, also part of the TRL Space group. The encryption system will provide reliable protection for the transmitted data.

Source: https://rhkbrno.cz/

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