Space business: Innovators from Brno create successful commercial projects that cross the boundaries of traditional industry

TRL Space from Brno focuses on satellites as the final product for its clients. The company is currently working on a satellite for the Czech Republic and another one for Rwanda that is supposed to provide important data for local agriculture and its key commodity – bananas.
 

“The hyperspectral camera we’ve been developing to be a part of the satellite makes it possible to monitor irrigation, as well as diseases that can threaten the banana trees. It provides scans of large areas and differentiates several dozens of spectrums and shows the differences among them in various colours,” explains managing director Petr Kapoun. Given the economic importance of banana tree plantations in Africa, purchasing their own satellite pays off. And that’s another reason why TRL opened a branch directly in Africa with eight employees, for now. At the same time, though, the technology can be applied to border protection or for military intelligence.
 

The hyperspectral camera will also be carried by its TROLL satellite, which is a new and different business model for the company. It’s the first Czech commercial satellite customers can order images from. Among them will be the Czech Environmental Inspectorate which would like to monitor illegal garbage dumps or pollution of waterways. “Any public or commercial entity which needs to monitor its areas, such as farmers, logistics companies, or insurance companies can become a client of ours,” says Petr Kapoun whose company’s turnover reached three million euro last year and expects to double it this year.

Processing the data from space 

In general, the processing of satellite data to improve life on Earth has become a bigger part of this industry, which is no longer about conquering space, as people may still imagine. And a number of technology companies from South Moravia have been specializing in these downstreaming services.
 

“We’ve developed a program which – using an algorithm and AI – analyses the images taken directly on board of the satellite to send back to Earth only the ones containing relevant information free of noise caused, for example, by clouds,” describes Marek Marušin from Brno-based Zaitra. This makes the data transfer cheaper and quicker, allowing clients to reach in real time.
 

“We are able to find specific images for end customers of satellite producers that we cooperate with, e.g. to find the location of a fire in the woods or to see how a ship is moving through a canal. This lets us make the most of the limited communication window to transfer the images,” adds Marušin. This makes it possible to receive immediate notifications concerning the status and safety of critical infrastructure or react to natural disasters.
 

The satellite factor 

TRL Space and Zaitra, along with a number of others from over forty companies active in Brno and its surroundings, show potential applications of their technologies in various areas, across industries and needs of people here on Earth. “Most modern systems use satellites as an indispensable part of the process; at the same time, though, the potential for other uses of their data and services has been growing,” confirms Luděk Kühr from BizGarden.

Currently, he’s a member of an expert team which defines a new European data area making satellite data accessible across all walks of life on Earth. Among the examples he gives are tourism, sustainable growth as well as monitoring the changes of living conditions of people and their economic-political consequences in the form of violent conflicts or migration.
 

The main pillar of this industry are European or governmental projects. The cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency) is a gateway to the industry as such; you can work on some part of it and establish your company as a supplier with all the necessary certificates, but it’s important to make further use of such involvement.
 

The funds provided by ESA are in fact subsidies for the member states, and investments like this may return only when the companies get jobs elsewhere, too. “Not many people realize that ESA initiates the transfer of technologies into the commercial sector while the European Commission directly supports the business in the space industry,” says the research project manager from BizGarden. This company started with a feasibility study and a demo project focusing on the use of satellite signals for security and better awareness of the visitors to mountain resorts. And, embracing this direction, it has initiated several new commercial projects. 

From Brno all the way to the Moon 

Petr Kapoun from TRL Space agrees: “In addition to supplying entire satellites, we’ve been developing technologies that may be sold all over the world. The Lider laser altimeter, for example, was researched and developed as part of programs by ESA.”
 

One of them is the LUGO scientific mission which is supposed to enter lunar orbit in 2030 with the aim of mapping the Moon’s lava corridors to provide information about places for future lunar stations. And there’s one more exceptional thing about it for the region as well as the entire Czech Republic – TRL Space from Brno will be the very first organization from Central or Eastern Europe to oversee a mission for ESA!