POLISH FIRMS ROSE IN COSMOS

Development of the Polish space sector: opportunities, challenges and prospects for the future.

Written by Tomasz Sułek, Creotech Instruments

Introduction: The beginnings of human activity in space in the position of the planet and Poland

Human activity in space on a crucial scale began after the end of planet War II, erstwhile planet powers, especially the US and the USSR, and to any degree besides Britain or France, recognized space as a fresh field of method and ideological competition. The targeting of space exploration of the large effort of human work and equally large funds by the United States and the russian Union competing for the first to conquer space has translated into a leap of space technology. Poland, as a country of the east bloc, had no crucial influence or function in this global competition, which does not mean that it was zero. Poland's modest activity in this field dates back to the 1950s and 1960s and the work carried out by the Institute of Aviation on Meteor household meteorological missiles, whose launches, with a full of thirty-six, took place in 1963-74. A small earlier, due to the fact that already in 1954 the Polish Astronomical Society was established. However, the best known and besides symbolic minute in Polish past was sending (later) General Mirosław Hermaszewski aboard the russian Soyuz 30 in 1978. He was the first and so far only Pole to make a space trip. Although this event was a immense propaganda success, it did not translate into the improvement of a wide-ranging Polish extraterrestrial activity. In times of PRLu, the improvement of space investigation in our country was mostly dependent on cooperation with the USSR and limited economical opportunities of Poland. However, this does not mean that no work in this direction has been carried out. An crucial step was the establishment of the Meteor rocket in 2 years after the last flight, i.e. in 1976, the PAN Space investigation Centre (CBK PAN), which inactive plays a key function in space technology research, which does not change the fact that the investigation then was limited in nature and focused mainly on global cooperation within the east Block. It is worth mentioning here that in 1974 it was opened (and after 1982 expanded), belonging to the Telecommunications Centre of Polish Satellite Services (the Centre for Satellite Communications) in Psary, which operated until 2010. The Centre initially provided satellite communications within the Intersputnik system, which was expanded to include Intelsat systems (in 1982 and 1989), Eutelsat (1993) and Inmarsat (1997 and 1999). The liquidation of the Centre in 2010 resulted from restructuring in TP in connection with the privatisation of the company. The author met with opinions that this action was unthought-out and had long-term negative effects on Polish satellite communication capabilities, the fact that akin objects, specified as Raisting Earth Station or Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station, inactive function present to serve, among another things, the needs of space communication.

Systemic transformation and a fresh beginning of the Polish space sector.

The systemic changes which took place in 1989 and the process of integration with western economical and political structures initiated by Poland opened up fresh opportunities for Poland. As the economical situation of the country stabilised, it began to see the request to invest besides in advanced technologies, which created fresh opportunities for the space sector to operate and develop. Poland's accession to NATO in 1999 and then to the European Union in 2004 gave a imagination of wider cooperation and integration with global space programs. Poland started moving towards active participation in global space projects, and the breakthrough was joining the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2012. The accession of Poland gave us access to global investigation programs, technologies and financing of space exploration projects, besides allowed us to absorb knowledge, both in the method dimension as well as to conduct and manage space projects. There is no uncertainty that Poland's accession to the European Space Agency is 1 of the most crucial events in the past of the Polish space sector, liable for its formation and current shape. What is highly important, especially from the position of national space actors, ESA, in addition to offering associate States the chance to participate in space programmes and to finance national projects, as an global organisation, operates on the basis of "juste retour" (return of investment). This rule assumes that the membership contribution paid by the State is reinvested in its home space manufacture through projects carried out on its territory, by data for the country companies and investigation teams. As a result, a crucial part of the funds which Poland, or another countries respectively, contributes to ESA return straight to our country, supplying the Polish economy and transforming itself into the improvement of our staff. The contribution to ESA is so practically a state investment in the Polish space manufacture which is not public aid within the meaning of national and European law. The funds which Poland transfers as part of the contribution come from budgets of various ministries, mainly National Defence and improvement and Technology. This means that each time the amount of the contribution depends on cooperation and implementation of inter-ministerial arrangements, which is not always an optimal solution. However, Poland's specified joining ESA would not have been so crucial if it had not been for the next step of establishing the Polish Space Agency (POLSA). In accordance with the Act of 26 September 2014 on the Polish Space Agency, it carries out tasks in support; "Space industry, research, space use, improvement of space technology, including satellite engineering, and the usage and results of investigation for utility, economic, defence, state and technological purposesIt’s okay. ” 1 of the most crucial tasks of the Agency, including the thirteen listed in the Act, is “... appointment of advisors and experts to Polish delegations and representations in the institutions of the European Union, the European Space Agency ...’. Polish interests in ESA are represented by a national delegation, which consists of representatives of the Polish administration. It is ESA associate States' delegations that are seeking appropriate allocation of funds under proposed projects to be implemented by ESA. Therefore, the function of delegates, from the position of Polish interests, is to guarantee that the funds from the Polish contribution are located in programmes to which they have competence, or towards which national entities develop. However, the functioning of the Agency, as enshrined in the abovementioned Act, is importantly limited by the deficiency of an implementing regulation as indicated in Article 3a of the abovementioned Act, which would regulate "(...)detailed usage and detailed conditions and modalities for the Agency's support, with a view to the efficient and efficient usage of this support and to ensuring transparency of its provision in the framework of public aid, non-public aid and de minimis aid, and the request to get the information essential to supply support.’. As a consequence of the deficiency of a regulation, the Polish Space Agency cannot in practice carry out parts of the statutory tasks to be supported, due to the deficiency of essential legal tools.

Polish space companies: an example of dynamic development.

Poland has seen a crucial increase in the number of companies operating in the space sector since joining ESA. Many of these companies were created after 2012, others expanded their activities in this direction to adapt their competences to the requirements of modern space technologies and to the advanced method standards in force and required by the European Space Agency. The improvement of this part of the marketplace is worth showing on the figures, within 12 years of accession, so in 2024 there are already 300 companies in the Polish market, employing nearly 12,000 people, which should be considered a large success considering how advanced and specialized the manufacture is. The same pattern of improvement of the Polish space sector and the erstwhile paths followed by this improvement can be characterized as a two-track. On the 1 hand, projects are being implemented for national purposes to make strategical space infrastructure, on the another hand, Polish companies participate in global projects, mainly of a scientific, investigation or exploration nature, carried out in cooperation with ESA and another space agencies. The implementation of projects for national needs focuses mainly on the improvement of satellite capabilities which are crucial for national safety and monitoring of the situation in Poland. Examples of specified projects are Camila, Microglob, Microsar and PIAST. All of these initiatives aim to make satellite constellations that will be utilized for monitoring and imaging Earth. The satellite constellations collected under these programmes will supply key data for state administration, military and public services. The Microglob, Microsar and PIAST constellation programmes are projects implemented for the needs of the Ministry of Defence as well as financed straight from the financial resources located in the ministerial budget. The Camila task is outstanding and interesting in terms of management and funding. Camila National Awareness Mission in Land Analysis will be implemented on the basis of an agreement that was concluded in 2023 between the Ministry of improvement and Technology and the European Space Agency. It can be said that this is simply a form of outsourcing of services by the Ministry of ESA, with backing provided by MRiT, while the European Space Agency is liable for selecting and then supervising the contractor. However, Camila is an exception to another space missions carried out by Poland. In another projects co-operating with ESA, the Polish space sector implements investigation and improvement projects aimed at developing advanced space technologies, exploration and exploration of space. However, the participation of Polish companies in these breakthrough projects does not so much give them access to the latest technological developments, but requires the improvement of avant-garde and unique solutions, which contributes to the improvement of competences and expanding competitiveness in the global market. The improvement of Polish competences in the field of space technologies is not limited, of course, to hardware. Polish companies, specified as KP Labs, besides make imaging and data processing technologies, with possible for usage in many global space projects. Poland is besides a supplier of unique investigation instruments developed by the CBK PAS, which are utilized in missions carried out by ESA and another space agencies.

Close Future

Although Poland does not yet have an extended fleet of operating satellites in 2024, this situation will change dramatically in the foreseeable future. Already in 2025 there will be satellites of the PIAST constellation – Polish ImAging Satellites, implemented in a consortium consisting of: Military method Academy, Creotech Instruments S.A., Centre for Space investigation of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Łukasiewicz investigation Network – Institute of Aviation, Scanway Sp. z o.o. and PCO S.A. PIAST is simply a task designed to make a constellation consisting of 3 modern satellites of Earth imaging. This is the first specified ambitious task implemented in Poland, which can at the same time become a turning point in the improvement of national earth-image capabilities. PIAST satellites will be utilized to illustrate Poland and Europe as well as to show orbital maneuvers. If the plans are implemented, the PIASTs will be joined in the close future by the abovementioned satellites of the Microglob and Microsar constellations, and complementary to them by Camila. This means that in the coming years Poland will gain at least 4 constellations, in which the full number of satellites will exceed 12 objects, and it can be speculated that it will increase, whether it is within the framework of the expansion and expansion of the ability to depict the above constellations, or the acquisition of fresh competences in the space domain. As part of the programmes presently launched by Poland, there was no imagination of gaining an crucial capacity of satellite communication and communication. However, it does not seem impossible for Poland, in the foreseeable time frame, to decide to make satellite capabilities in the field of communication or further electromagnetic detection, which would complement the current plans to increase the anticipation of imaging. Especially the improvement of its satellite communication capabilities is 1 of the key challenges facing Poland. Our country presently uses abroad satellite service providers specified as Airbus, but in the long word we should strive to make our own communication satellites to guarantee full independency in satellite communications. These satellites play a key function in ensuring national security, allowing safe communication for both the military and the state administration. However, this would require crucial investments, both in technology and ground infrastructure. It would besides take many years to make a national military-standard communications satellite. A comparatively fast solution would be to make specified a strategy in cooperation with abroad partners, and as it develops, to increase the participation of Polish manufacture in the project, which would require many years of planning. Most importantly, however, the request for communication systems has been noted and pre-arranged as announced on 28 October this year, by the Minister of Digitalization Krzysztof Gawkowski, the State Digitalisation Strategy, assumes in 1 of the objectives the improvement and construction of a national telecommunications satellite in geostationary orbit, and the constellation of communication satellites in low earth orbit. The acquisition of specified capabilities is desirable and in view of the progressive militarization of space, inevitable. Modern armed conflicts – as can be seen in the war beyond our east border, they besides increasingly have a cosmic dimension and satellites become a key component of critical infrastructure, both for the civilian and military sectors. Poland, like another countries, must be aware of this and must be prepared for both the usage of space, but besides for possible threats from it, in peculiar for national satellite infrastructure, which may be both kinetic (physical attack on satellites or ground infrastructure) and non-kinetic (signal interference, cyber attacks).

Development of Polish carrier means: ambition and future.

In addition to the improvement of satellites, Poland is slow besides building capacity in the field of carrier agents. The ongoing work on respective projects is intended to consequence in the creation of Polish suborbital rockets and potentially, in the long term, besides orbital rockets. An example of specified projects is the work on a three-stage suborbital rocket, conducted by Military Aviation Plants No. 1, the Institute of Aviation is developing the “Bursztyn” project, which reached a maximum of 101 km during the tests, and SpaceForest offers its solution, which is the “Perun” rocket and is working on further development. From my conversations with representatives of this company, the next Perun rocket flight is expected in the second 4th of 2025, there are besides pre-planned 3 more launches, and yet SpaceForest would like to make an orbital rocket, which has already been reflected in SpaceForest's production infrastructure. Although the current version of the Perun rocket has a diameter of 450 mm, the developed winding device for the manufacture of rocket components allows to produce elements with a diameter of up to 1400 mm. However, a clear challenge erstwhile establishing flights from the country remains the geographical conditions of Poland, which does not have convenient locations for rocket launches into orbit from its own territory, in peculiar due to its neighbourhood. The question is whether this presumption is imperative. A possible solution to this problem is the removal of non-Polish facilities, in cooperation with another countries with appropriate starting infrastructure or the improvement of start-up technologies from sea platforms. It is simply a very distant vision, but not unrealistic. The advantage and crucial added value of the ongoing work on load-bearing systems is that they should be considered as a improvement of dual-use solutions, and unless the systems themselves find military applications, cognition and experience as well as any of the technologies developed – yes.

No space policy: legal and organisational challenges.

One of the biggest challenges facing the Polish space sector is the deficiency of a coherent policy in this area. For many years, Poland has been working on real implementation of the national space strategy as well as on the improvement of a law on space activities. The task was to be adopted in the 3rd 4th of 2024, and the strategy, specifically the deficiency of implementation of its assumptions and implementation of its tools, was met with criticism of NIK controllers in 2019 and 2024. The Polish Space strategy was expected to lead to the creation of the National Space Programme, which was to be an executive paper to the Strategy. As planned, this paper was to be adopted in 2020. In terms of deadlines, therefore, the issue of the Space Activity Act, which has been under improvement since 2013, is better presented. Many projects were created in the course of these projects, with the current existing 1 hoping for close completion. According to the information available on the NRPM website, the adoption of the bill by the Council of Ministers is postponed to the 4th fourth of 2024. The Polish space sector is in a phase of dynamic development, but it besides faces many obstacles. Cooperation with ESA and engagement of Polish companies in global space projects open up immense opportunities for Poland. In order to make full usage of this potential, it is essential to implement the objectives of the space strategy as well as the adoption of legislative and implementing acts to guarantee a unchangeable and predictable ground for action and a predictable and clear imagination of the future.