On February 11-22, 2019, Prof. Piotr Wolański, Chairman of the Space and Satellite Research Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences, chaired the Polish delegation at the meeting of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) in Vienna. In his presentation, Professor Wolański informed the participants of the meeting from 73 member countries of the United Nations and many organizations active in the field of space, about Polish space activity including the work carried out at the Institute of Aviation in the field of ecological rocket and satellite propulsions (green propellants).
Professor Piotr Wolański, who during his speech at the United Nations officially acted as the Chairman of the Polish Academy of Sciences, is also closely associated with the Institute of Aviation as a member of its Scientific Council and a tutor of the Department of Space Technologies. It is here that numerous projects for the European Space Agency have been carried out for several years in the field of development of engines for deorbitation of satellites, ecological propellants and rocket engines.
The agenda of the meeting included many technical presentations, including a presentation bya representative of the Polish company Astronika, Łukasz Wiśniewski, on the Polish contribution to the InSight mission (NASA). The mission is to examine the surface of Mars – for this purpose, a special HP3 penetrator was built, which allows drilling into the Martian soil. The device was entirely designed and manufactured in Poland, and its development involved engineering teams from several key research institutions in the country. The Institute of Aviation’s contribution to this project consisted in performing material tests on a scanning electron microscope and X-ray tomography of components, which was also emphasized in the presentation.
The S&TS meeting at the UN headquarters in Vienna is held annually to discuss the scientific and technical aspects of space activities. The discussion covers topics such as the use of space technology for social and economic development and long-term activities in space.
