Members of the second private mission to the International Space Station, which reached the ISS last week, will conduct research and test new technologies in low Earth orbit. They will use brain activity testing equipment supplied by a Polish neurotechnology company.

The time has come to build a Polish space mission, because if we combine the competences of our institutes, universities and commercial companies, we can attempt to build a probe that will fly into space. The work is already advanced. Prototype devices are already being tested, Professor Grzegorz Wrochna, president of the Polish Space Agency (POLSA) said in an interview with PAP.PL during the Impact'23 Congress.

Recent simulations of our cosmic neighbourhood indicate that there may be as many as a dozen small galaxies around the Milky Way waiting to be discovered. The international research team includes scientists from Poland, the Centre for Theoretical Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences reports.

The risk of an asteroid impact that would threaten our civilization is minor, but it cannot be ruled out. Scientists are working on improving the methods for detecting and predicting the trajectories of such objects. Possible defence methods are also being developed, Dr. Tomasz Barciński and Dr. Małgorzata Królikowska-Sołtan from the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences told PAP.

In the European Space Agency's ClearSpace-1 mission, a 'garbage vehicle', will fly into space in 2025 and remove a fragment of an old rocket from orbit. The clearing satellite is being built by the Swiss start-up ClearSpace SA. Polish experts from the Space Research Centre PAS are also involved in the project. “Clearing the orbit is a preventive measure,” says project participant Jędrzej Baran.

On April 13, one of the European Space Agency's largest missions - Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer (JUICE) is scheduled to launch towards Jupiter. It will try to provide detailed information about the three large moons of Jupiter - Callisto, Europa and Ganymede, and about the entire Jovian system.

Working on a lunar meteorite is a real scientific treat, says Professor Monika A. Kusiak, a geochemist and mineralogist from the Department of Polar and Marine Research of the Institute of Geophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences. She is studying a meteorite found in Antarctica with a team of scientists from NASA and Korea.

In the European Space Agency's ClearSpace-1 mission, a 'garbage vehicle', will fly into space in 2025 and remove a fragment of an old rocket from orbit. The clearing satellite is being built by the Swiss start-up ClearSpace SA. Polish experts from the Space Research Centre PAS are also involved in the project. “Clearing the orbit is a preventive measure,” says project participant Jędrzej Baran.

As the technological 'space race' between the US and China continues, the fight for raw materials could also become an element of this rivalry, believes Dr. Jakub Ryzenko from the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences.