Poland’s academic community is joining forces to support the development of the country’s space sector. At the end of June, five universities signed a letter of intent to establish the Inter-University Space Ecosystem Centre. It is intended to be an interdisciplinary platform combining expertise not only in technology and economics, but also in health and physical culture.
“The Inter-University Space Ecosystem Centre is an initiative designed to bring together a certain degree of interdisciplinarity. It involves technical and economic universities, as well as institutions connected with physical culture and health. This is both a challenge and a motivation for universities to mobilise and break down the subject of space research into broader areas of activity,” Prof. Bartosz Molik, Rector of the Józef Piłsudski University of Physical Education in Warsaw, told Newseria.
The letter of intent to establish the Inter-University Space Ecosystem Centre was signed by the rectors of the University of Physical Education in Warsaw, the Warsaw School of Economics, Lodz University of Technology, Jagiellonian University and the AGH University of Krakow. The signing took place on the first anniversary of the launch of the IGNIS mission, in which Polish astronaut Dr Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski participated. The centre is intended to serve as an inter-institutional and interdisciplinary platform for scientific, educational, expert and organisational cooperation.
“The formula of this agreement is open. Our vision is to involve not only these five universities, but also many other universities and research institutes in work related to space,” Prof. Molik says.
The aim of establishing the Inter-University Space Ecosystem Centre will be to integrate universities, scientific units, research institutes, public administration and entities from the space sector. Joint research, educational and implementation projects will be developed within the centre. In addition, modern study programmes will be created to respond to the needs of the space sector labour market.
“Space research may seem like a vision of the future, but if we look back at history, it was already present in the 1960s and 1970s, including through General Hermaszewski,” says the Rector of the University of Physical Education in Warsaw. “Our university mainly dealt with the area of physical health. We focused on physical, aerobic and anaerobic capacity.”
General Mirosław Hermaszewski was the first Pole in space. On 27 June 1978, as a flight engineer, he launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome aboard the Soyuz-30 spacecraft together with Russian cosmonaut Pyotr Klimuk. At the Salyut-6 orbital station, he carried out the planned scientific programme. The flight lasted eight days, during which 126 orbits of the Earth were completed. Physical preparations for the mission took place, among other locations, at the University of Physical Education, and Prof. Krzysztof Klukowski, a graduate of the university and later its professor, was involved in them.
“Before the IGNIS mission and after its completion, together with Dr Michał Starczewski’s team at the Central Research Laboratory of the University of Physical Education in Warsaw, we conducted tests of aerobic and anaerobic capacity, including those of Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski. This is the area in which we specialise,” Prof. Molik emphasises. “Research was also conducted by the Gdańsk University of Physical Education and Sport, which addressed psychological aspects.”
During the IGNIS mission, in which the Polish astronaut took part, the EEG Neurofeedback experiment developed by the Gdańsk University of Physical Education and Sport was carried out. It is a brain-training technique that uses real-time information about the brain’s electrical activity and is intended to help, among other things, improve concentration and regulate psychological responses. The university reports that the project is now at the stage of detailed analysis of the results, which will be published soon. Discussions are also under way on implementing neurofeedback training in environments that require preparation for operating under extreme stress.
“We are a university that takes care of health, physical fitness, and anaerobic and aerobic capacity. Technical and economic universities have their own separate areas. The most important thing now is to develop a cooperation platform within which we will exchange research and experience and run one joint institute,” says the Rector of the University of Physical Education in Warsaw.
The role of the Inter-University Space Ecosystem Centre will be to support the participation of Polish institutions in research experiments, experimental flights and future space missions, as well as to promote the achievements of Poland’s space sector and build public awareness of the importance of space exploration.
“The development of space technologies does not affect space alone. Technology prepared with space or the military sector in mind, from my perspective as a physiotherapist, also affects the medical industry and health,” Prof. Molik emphasises. “Technologies used in space can also be applied in the field of health, not only by astronauts, but by all people as part of prevention and physical health protection.”
As part of the IGNIS mission, 13 experiments developed by Polish institutions and companies were carried out. These projects combined various fields: science, engineering and practical applications. In addition to the EEG Neurofeedback study, they included research into the human microbiota and immune system, tests of advanced materials and artificial intelligence algorithms. As Prof. Piotr Wachowiak, Rector of the Warsaw School of Economics, emphasised during the signing of the letter of intent, the mission showed that Poland has the competences, ambitions and potential to actively co-create the future of the European space sector. For Poland, this is an opportunity to use these experiences to build a lasting ecosystem linking science, education, government administration and industry.
The rectors emphasised that their universities are already carrying out a number of space-related initiatives. Jagiellonian University is implementing an ERC project related to preparations for the HYADES mission, in which a telescope launched into orbit is intended to help identify the origin of water on Earth. At AGH University of Krakow, the Faculty of Space Technologies has been operating since last year. Meanwhile, Lodz University of Technology, whose graduate is Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski, is working on security systems for the Large Hadron Collider at CERN and is taking part in the construction of the “artificial sun”, the ITER project in France.
