On 28 November 2014 at the Ministry of Economy contracts for the projects realization in the space sector within the support program for Polish industry were signed. The Institute of Aviation was among the companies, whose projects were qualified for implementation. Polish companies put forth 70 projects – among them 28 were qualified. The total worth of the contracts is over 5 mln euros.
A contract for the project: “Green bi-propellant apogee rocket engine for future spacecraft (GRACE)” was signed at the Ministry of Economy. The aim of the project is to develop, at the early stage, the green bi-propellant apogee rocket engine for future spacecraft. Its realization is a response to changing trends in the development of spacecraft propulsion. Placing hydrazine and its derivatives on the list of substances particularly dangerous for environment resulted in the increase of interest in ecologic spacecraft propellants. In GRACE project implementation will be used an invention developed at the Institute of Aviation – “Method of obtaining hydrogen peroxide, especially HTP class, for application in drives and system for vacuum distillation”, which was previously awarded with gold medal with mention in the EUREKA competition at the Brussels-Innova 2014.
The GRACE project implementation enters into a strategy development of the Institute of Aviation in the field of space technologies.
It is the third project, developed at the Institute of Aviation, co-financed by the European Space Agency, and at the same time, the second in the similar topic.
Currently, at the final stage, there is a project: “Research of the composite catalyst bed for decomposition of highly concentrated hydrogen peroxide to be applied in monopropellant thruster” co-financed by the European Space Agency within the PECS program. The research results, which are the subject of the project, will be used in the realization of the key tasks in GRACE project.
