“Space: The Strength of the Past, the Hope of the Future” was the motto of the 70th International Astronautical Congress (October 21-25, 2019) held in Washington DC, attended by engineers, scientists and political decision-makers from more than 80 countries.
The International Astronautical Congress is one of the largest and most important events of the space industry in the world. The main conference was preceded by trade fairs, networking and business meetings.
This year’s congress was an opportunity for many discussions and talks about current advances in technology, as well as to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the landing of the Apollo mission on the Moon.
The Washington congress was attended by representatives of the Space Technologies Department from the Łukasiewicz Research Network – Aviation Institute, who made the following presentations:
- prof. dr hab. inż. Piotr Wolański – Development of rocket-ramjet propulsion based on continuously rotating detonation,
- Adam Okniński, PhD Eng. – The ILR-33 AMBER 2K ROCKET – dedicated access to suborbital experimentation,
- Paweł Surmacz, PhD Eng. – Open cell metal foam supported catalysts for hydrogen peroxide thrusters,
- Jakub Rachucki, M.Sc. Eng. – Design of an electric power system with embedded battery management systems and chargers for the ILR-33 AMBER rocket and micro launcher applications.
The congress featured an exhibition organized by manufacturers of rockets, satellites and devices used in space flights and on the Earth’s surface for steering and control of satellites and space probes, satellite data processing, production of space suits, simulators and other products from the United States, space agencies of many countries, including the Polish Space Agency POLSA.
The IAC 2019 event was accompanied by a meeting titled “Polish Space Night” organized in the Embassy of the Republic of Poland and devoted to the development prospects of the Polish space industry. Among the invited guests were representatives of government administration, members of the Parliamentary Space Group, Polish Space Agency, government agencies of Japan, Romania and Ukraine, business representatives and delegates from the Łukasiewicz Research Network – Aviation Institute, who presented the Institute’s achievements in the development of space technologies.
Honorary guests of the “Polish Space Night” were NASA’s associate administrator Steve Jurczyk and astronaut colonel George Zamka.
During the congress, the Polish Space Agency and NASA signed an agreement, which will allow Polish scientists and engineers to take part in a wide range of impressive work of the American agency.
