The 57th meeting of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee takes place at the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN COPUOS) in Vienna from 3 to 14 February 2020. Delegates of the Łukasiewicz Research Network – Institute of Aviation took part in its proceedings on February 10-11, 2020. The Institute was represented by: Prof. Piotr Wolański, who has been chairing the Polish delegation to COPUOS for 16 years, Leszek Loroch, PhD Eng., Director of the Space Technologies Center and Paweł Nowakowski, Eng.
Delegates from around the world reported on the activities of their countries and observer organisations in the field of space activities. The main topics were: the use of data from observation satellites, global navigation satellite systems and other instruments as well as their use to support disaster prevention or “space weather” monitoring.
The agenda also included various technical presentations. One of them was entitled “Space Debris Mitigation using dedicated Solid Rocket Propulsion”, presented by the Institute delegate Paweł Nowakowski, Eng. This allowed to disseminate among delegates from many countries the scope of the Institute’s activities in the development of rocket propulsion systems, in particular for satellite deorbitation (prevention of the emergence of space debris).
Delegates also had the opportunity to see a summary of last year’s activities and future plans for agencies such as NASA and ESA. One of the sessions was also devoted to the issue of equal access to space activities for women and recommendations to balance their participation.
