In Prague, they opened a new center for the development and testing of space and aviation technology
It will offer research institutions and companies tests for which it is now necessary to travel abroad. According to experts, it will speed up and make the development of new technologies cheaper.
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The director of VZLÚ, Josef Kašpar, emphasized that the center will primarily focus on tests and development of unmanned air transport of cargo and people and space technologies that also serve people on Earth. In addition to the possibilities of experiments not yet available in the Czech Republic, some VZLÚ workplaces will also be moved to the center with an area of 6,000 square meters, the current premises are no longer suitable.
Spaces with dust cleanliness
The center will include, among other things, spaces with a controlled environment and so-called dust cleanliness – i.e. in the standard required for work on space technology.
It already houses the control station for the VZLUSAT-1 and VZLUSAT-2 nanosatellites sent into space, which is being developed by a suitable institute.
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While the first of the satellites, used to verify technologies, has been in Earth’s orbit for over five years and carries, for example, an X-ray telescope or a radiation shield developed in the Czech Republic, the second was launched into space this January. VZLUSAT-2 has as its main instruments two cameras used for detailed observation and detailed imaging of the Earth.
The head of the institute’s Space division, Juraj Dudáš, said that an infrastructure is being prepared that will allow experts to assemble satellites weighing up to 200 to 300 kilograms and to also fully test them on the institute’s premises.
“We assume that we will be able to implement the technologies in the following units of years. It will be a gradual filling of the hall,” Dudáš described.
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According to him, the development of technology will not only become cheaper, but above all it will speed up. “Today, if you have an appointment abroad, you also have to send workers there,” Dudáš pointed out, adding that after the emergence of some alternatives in the Czech Republic, this necessity will disappear and it will also be possible to carry out more tests more easily.
Ján Zakucia from the Aviation division, which deals with unmanned drones, then noted that tests ordered abroad tend to have a precisely given program, the parameters of which cannot be changed if necessary. According to the expert, the fact that everything will be in one place also risks damage to individual parts.
The C3T building was partially co-financed from European sources within the Operational Program Prague – Pole of Growth. Construction of the center began last year.
Cooperation with ESA
Experts from the institute are now collaborating with the European Space Agency (ESA) on the development of a larger satellite in the AMBIC project. “We are already talking about dimensions of 0.5 × 0.5 × 0.5 meters and a weight of perhaps 50, 80 kilograms,” described scientist Petr Svoboda.
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According to Svoboda, the project is under the microscope of ESA, and the team from the institute is thus “learning” the development of more powerful satellites. Svoboda said that these projects will be evaluated in the Czech Republic over the next few years, which will be given the green light for further development.
According to Svoboda, the QUVIK project is also in the initiation phase, which in the future should result in the first Czech space telescope with an optimized design for the ultraviolet part of the spectrum. The aim of the scientific mission will be to support the further involvement of domestic scientists and industry in space projects.