The first images from the Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile were presented last week during a global premiere event held simultaneously in over 300 institutions worldwide, including the Copernicus Science Centre Planetarium in Warsaw. The unveiling, part of the international “Rubin First Look,” marked what researchers are calling the beginning of a new era in astronomy.
The Ax-4 space mission, carrying Polish astronaut Dr. Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski, has launched from Cape Canaveral. The four-person crew is expected to arrive at the International Space Station (ISS) around 1:00 PM Polish time on Thursday.
Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski will fly into space. He will be the second Pole in history, after Mirosław Hermaszewski. However, many of our compatriots have contributed to space exploration.
A Cracow University of Technology student will work together with scientists from Canada, the US and Austria on new methods of preventing bone demineralisation in astronauts, who are more susceptible to fractures and osteoporosis due to prolonged exposure to microgravity.
The Solar Orbiter probe was the first instrument in history to conduct observations of the poles of our daytime star. This will help us better understand the Sun’s magnetic field, its activity cycles, and space weather. Experts from the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences (CBK PAN) participated in the construction of the probe.
Polish company Astronika will take part in the Ramses mission of the European Space Agency. Its aim is to send a space probe to study the asteroid Apophis, which will pass Earth within a short distance in 2029. Polish experts will supply miniature radar antennas.
The end of the life of the International Space Station (ISS), which will operate until 2030, is approaching. NASA assumes that private companies will take over the tasks of the ISS. However, according to Jarosław Juszkiewicz from the Planetarium - Silesian Science Park, the lack of permanent human presence in space is a big step back.
Although technologies such as Alert RCB are already effective tools for warning the population, the mobile networks they rely on can themselves be destroyed in the event of a disaster. During the EU Space Days in Gdańsk, experts presented a new, resistant and fast satellite technology based on the Galileo system.
A telescope designed and built in Poland will fly to the orbit of the moon next year, says Oskar Zdunek from Scanway. The company is working on this instrument.