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VENUS-EXPRESS was launched on November 26, 2005. It was the second planet-bound probe developed for ESA. The aim of the mission is to study the atmosphere, plasma environment and surface of Venus. Poland was involved in the PFS (Planetary Fourier Spectrometer) experiment. The spectral range of the instrument is 0.9-45μm. It was designed to perform …

PFS (Venus Express mission) Read More »

The payload-electric field detector was launched on June 6, 1992 on a Terrier-boosted Black Brant VC rocket (NASA 36.064 CE, El Coqui AA-3B) from the Puerto Rico’s North Coast. Peak altitude: 370km. Trajectory plane: within 10° of the magnetic meridian. Investigations were focused on the Chemical Release and Radiation Effects Satellite (CRRES) program and they …

Suborbital flight during the ‘El Coqui’ campaign Read More »

Cassini is a joint mission of NASA and ESA established to study the Saturn System and its largest moon, Titan. The mission was launched on October 5, 1997 and arrived at Saturn on July 1, 2004. On January 14, 2005 HUYGENS probe landed on Titan’s surface. HUYGENS investigated the atmosphere and surface, and enabled the …

THP (Cassini-Huygens mission) Read More »

ROSETTA was an international mission that was a part of the ESA’s Science Programme. The satellite was launched on March 2, 2004 and its destination was the short period comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The mission’s objectives were: to analyse the drilled samples and the surface; to sound the deep interior, plasma and magnetosphere; to study dust oduction …

MUPUS (Rosetta-Philae mission) Read More »

PHOBOS-GRUNT was a Russian space mission to Phobos (one of the moons of Mars). Its aim was to investigate the Phobos’ surface and to study Mars; its atmosphere’s dynamics, dust storms and seasonal climate changes. One of the three instruments dedicated to collecting samples from Phobos’ surface is a unique geological penetrator CHOMIK which was …

Chomik penetrator (Fobos-Grunt mission) Read More »

As part of the China Chang’e 4 mission, two microsatellites (45 kg each) named Longjiang-1 and Longjiang-2 have been deployed into lunar orbit in May 2018 to observe the sky at very low frequencies (1 MHz-30 MHz), corresponding to wavelengths of 300m–10m, with the aim of studying energetic phenomena from celestial sources. Due to the …

Radio antennas and receivers (Longjiang / Chang’E-4 mission) Read More »

CHANDRAYAAN-1 was an Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) mission launched in collaboration with ESA to study the Moon. It was designed to study the lunar surface at high resolution. It was launched on October 22, 2008. CBK PAN collaborated on two experiments in this project. IR Spectrometer SIR-2 was designed and manufactured for lunar surface …

SIR-2 (Chardrayaan-1 mission) Read More »

DEMETER (Detection of the Electro-Magnetic Emission Transmitted from Earthquake Regions) was a French project of the low altitude micro-satellite which aim was to study the electromagnetic perturbations in relation with the seismic  and volcanic activity.Demeter was launched on June 29, 2004 and its scientific mission ended up on December 9, 2010. Poland provided the DC/DC …

Power supply unit (DEMETER mission) Read More »

The RELEC satellite was launched on July 8, 2014 into the Sun’s synchronous orbit with apogee: 830km, perigee: 640km and inclination: 98,4deg. The aim of the RELEC mission is to study the precipitation of the magnetosphere’s relativistic electrons and their impact on the Earth’s atmosphere and ionosphere including the observations of fast transient phenomena in …

RFA (RELEC mission) Read More »

COMPASS-2 was the first micro-satellite of the Russian Space Agency’s low orbiting system. Its aim was to investigate the geodynamics-related effects in the ionospheric plasma. The project was coordinated by IZMIRAN RAS, and Polish CBK PAN in Warsaw was a co-investigator of the Compass-2 experiments. The satellite was launched on May 26, 2006. The CBK …

RFA (Compas-2 mission) Read More »

COMPAS was a small satellite created for investigation of ionospheric plasma effects related to geodynamics. Poland provided the plasma wave radiospectrometer. The spacecraft lost contact with its ground telemetric station after launch.

The INTERBALL project was a new approach to the investigation of physical processes in the Earth’s magnetosphere and interplanetary medium with two satellites as well as two deployed sub-satellites delivered by the Czech Republic. The AURORAL PROBE (Interball-2) satellite along with its sub-satellite launched on August 29, 1998 was designed for measurements in the auroral …

POLRAD (Interball-2 mission) Read More »

The MARS 96 mission was designed to send an orbiter, two small autonomous stations, and two surface penetrators to Mars in order to investigate the evolution of the planet by studying its physical and chemical processes. The Mars 96 Orbiter carried 12 instruments created to study the surface and atmosphere of Mars, as well as …

ASPERA-C, ELISMA, PFS (Mars-96 mission) Read More »

The INTERBALL project was a new approach to the investigation of the physical processes in the Earth’s magnetosphere and interplanetary medium by means of two satellites, as well as two deployed Czech sub-satellites. The TAIL PROBE (Interball-1) satellite along with its sub-satellite was launched on August 3, 1995 and it penetrated the tail region of …

ADS, RF15-I (Interball-1 mission) Read More »

The satellite CORONAS-I was launched on March 2, 1994. Its task was to study physical processes on the Sun and their influence on the Earth. Poland provided two instruments located on board the spacecraft. The first one, the X-ray spectro-dopplerometer DIOGENES, is aimed at studying the energy transfer in solar flares. The other one, the …

DIOGENES, SORS-D (Koronas-I mission) Read More »

The PHOBOS mission to Mars, consisting of 2 nearly identical spacecrafts Phobos-1 and Phobos-2, was launched on 7 and 12 July, 1988 respectively. The mission was performed as a cooperation between 14 nations including Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, France, West Germany, Poland and ESA. The objectives were to conduct studies of interplanetary environment, characterize plasma environment …

APV-F1 i APV-F2 (Fobos-1 i Fobos-2 mission) Read More »

COSMOS-1809 – was launched on December 18, 1986 to an almost circular orbit to investigate the physical processes in the Earth’s ionosphere. On board the satellite were instruments, among others the ionospheric topside sounder, designed and manufactured by several Russian institutes. Poland provided the radiospectrometer to measure the plasma waves in r.f. range.

Probe designed for investigations of the planet Venus and Halley’s Comet. VEGA-1 and VEGA-2 were launched on December 15, 1984 and December 21, 1984, respectively. The Vega spacecrafts were fitted with scientific apparatus and equipment built in eight countries and ESA (European Space Agency). The spacecrafts rendezvoused with Halley’s Comet on March 6, 1986 (Vega-1) …

APV-N (Vega-1 i Vega-2 missions) Read More »

Spacecraft was launched on December 25, 1980 on Earth’s elongated orbit to investigate the interaction of solar wind with the magnetosphere. Measurements performed by scientific instruments obtained by international teams were related to the effects of solar activity on the interplanetary plasma and Earth’s environment. Poland (ILOT) provided the plasma wave spectrum analyser BUD-2.

INTERCOSMOS-15 tested new systems and satellite components in the spaceflight conditions. Poland provided the sub-carrier frequency generator for the unified telemetric system ETMS  located on IK-15’s board. Good performance of the device made it possible to use it also on the boards of IK-18, IK-19, IK-24, IK-25 satellites.

INTERCOSMOS-COPERNICUS 500 spacecraft aimed at observations of solar radio bursts at r.f. frequencies and plasma resonances in the upper ionosphere. Poland provided the r.f. radiospectrometer. The spacecraft was launched on April 19, 1973 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Copernicus birth. The obtained data allowed to estimate the strength and polarisation of the solar type …

PC-500K (Intercosmos-11 mission) Read More »

GAMMA mission launched on July 12, 1990, was a research in the field of high-energy (gamma/x-ray) astrophysics prepared jointly by Russia, France and Poland. The satellite was based on the Soyuz manned spacecraft. Poland provided the Telezvezda star tracker working together with the Gamma-1 telescope. It had a 6deg x 6deg field of view and …

Telezvezda (Gamma mission) Read More »

The Intercosmos-25 satellite with a Czech made sub-satellite was launched on the Earth’s orbit on December 18, 1991. Aboard the spacecraft were: an electron gun (6.2keV), a plasma gun (400eV), and a plasma diagnostics system. Another plasma diagnostics package was located on the sub-satellite. The main goal was to investigate the dynamics of an electron …

Intercosmos-25 mission Read More »

The Intercosmos-24 satellite was launched on the Earth’s orbit on September 28, 1989. The IK-24 satellite consisted of the 10kW power transmitter at 9.6kHz, a full plasma diagnostics system located on the spacecraft as well as Czech made sub-satellite released during the mission. The goal of the project was to investigate the elementary turbulence in …

Intercosmos-24 mission Read More »

Magion 4 was a subsatellite to INTERBALL 1 (Tail probe) and was launched together with it. The INTERBALL project’s main goal were the multi point simultaneous measurements at different altitudes in the Earth’s magnetosphere.On board of Magion 4 was located spectrum analyser SAS, build together by engineers from CBK PAN and IL, devoted to study …

SAS-1 (Magion-4 mission) Read More »

The rocket experiment Gruzya-60 Spurt (G-60-S) was aimed at studying the processes in the vicinity of the vehicle caused by the injection of an electron beam. The payload was launched on September 18, 1981 with VERTICAL rocket going up to 1540km of altitude. One aspect was to study the neutralisation process during and after the …

Vertical-Gruzya suborbital mission Read More »

Rocket launched on December 21, 1981. Peak altitude: 1510km. Atmospheric and ionospheric studies, with devices from the Soviet Union and cooperating countries, were carried out. Poland provided the spectrum analyser to measure the ionospheric plasma irregularities.

MR-12 rocket launched on May 20, 1983 to investigate the processes in the lower ionosphere. Poland provided the equipment measuring the low frequency spectra of plasma waves as well as electron density. The telemetric link with the scientific instruments failed after deployment of antenna system.

As a part of Plasma experiment the MR-12 rocket was launched from the North Atlantic (18N 30W), on March 18, 1985. It was a mother-daughter type experiment. The impulse Li+ ion gun of 300A and 8.3eV was located on the container attached to the rocket. Poland provided the r.f. spectrometer installed on the rocket board.

German/Indian DEOS (Dynamics of the Equatorial Ionosphere Over Shriharikota Range) Rocket Campaign was aimed at studying the structure and dynamics of the equatorial ionosphere under the equinox conditions. Three sounding rockets were launched in 1998 from SHAR (South India). The payload was comprised of the impedance probe, two Langmuir probes, a set of the resonance …

Suborbital mission of the DEOS campaign Read More »

Spacecraft launched on February 27, 1979 was designed to investigate the topside ionospheric structure and electromagnetic phenomena. The ionospheric topside sounder on board of the spacecraft was supported by a set of diagnostics plasma instruments provided by five countries. Poland (ILOT) provided the r.f. radiospectrometer as well as the sub-carrier frequency generator of the telemetric …

ETMS, IRS-1 (Intercosmos-19 mission) Read More »

PRIRODA, the last of the Mir modules launched on April 23, 1996, was designed for the Earth’s remote sensing. The experiments conducted by an international team supported a research program for the determination of atmosphere-ocean system characteristics and measurements of atmospheric optical characteristics. The vehicle also supported materials science, space technology, biotechnology and life sciences …

Wizjer (ITSOK-1 complex onboard space station Mir) Read More »