Laboratorium. Nanosatellite for monitoring forest wildfires

Every year, wildfires reduce millions of hectares of forest to ashes. Thick smoke blankets vast territories, preventing emergency services from detecting fire outbreaks in time. But what if there were a space-based assistant capable of seeing through smoke and clouds? 

Laboratorium explores a groundbreaking development by scientists from National Research Nuclear University MEPhI – the Svyatobor-1 nanosatellite, designed to monitor natural disasters.

How can deadly flames be detected from orbit? Why was the spacecraft’s innovative engine given the elegant name “Vera”? And, in an exclusive experiment for the programme, will the satellite succeed in detecting a wildfire in the taiga forests of Transbaikal?