Report from the scientific conference at the Institute of Political Science: Before we build a cosmodrome at ul. Koszarowa
On the 26th and 27th of October 2022, the Institute of Political Science at the University of Wrocław hosted a scientific conference titled “The Moon and Mars as the closest stage of the exploration and development of the Solar System”. The topic of this conference, which might not seem like it’s connected with political sciences, attracted some of the most renowned experts on outer space. This includes experts from research centers such as the Space Research Centre of Polish Academy of Sciences (prof. Piotr Orleański and prof. Karol Seweryn), European Astronaut’s Centre in Cologne (dr Anna Fogtman), Space Technology Centre AGH UST (dr Agata Kołodziejczyk) and Institute of Geological Sciences of Polish Academy of Sciences (dr Jakub Ciążela, dr Anna Łosiak, dr Marta Ciążela, mgr Maciej Fitt), which specializes in the research of extraterrestrial material. Prof. Grzegorz Wrochna, the President of the Polish Space Agency was the honorary guest of this year’s conference.
It is worthwhile to mention the subtitle of the conference, “Perspectives: global, European, national, Lower Silesian”. To underline the last two points, space business representatives from Lower Silesia (President and founder of SatRev, Krzysztof Fijak) and owners of such businesses (Vice President of Legnica Special Economic Zone) have taken part in the conference, and one of the panels was focused on political sciences and Europeanistic matters. It is also worth noting that one of the honorary patrons was, besides the Polish Space Agency and the Space Research Centre of Polish Academy of Sciences, former Marshall of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Cezary Przybylski. Those factors helped exhibit the regional character of the conference, and the event was a great opportunity for people from seemingly distant fields of science, business and local governments to connect with each other.
The multidisciplinary conference had two ambitious goals in mind: first, to strengthen or even bring about activity in outer space matters which the Polish space sector is advancing in slowly, such as the exploration of the Moon. The second goal was to evoke the interest of social and particularly political sciences in outer space as a potential area of study regarding the social and political activity soon to appear there. To flesh out the last point further, towards the end of the conference a panel discussion has been carried out to debate over the potential scientific grants and scholarships devoted to outer space matters. Prof. Przemysław Żukiewicz, prof. Leszek Kwieciński, dr Paweł Nowakowski (UWr) and prof. Irma Słomczyńska from UMCS (online through MS Teams) have taken part in the discussion. The panel was moderated by dr hab. Bartosz Smolik from the UWr Institute of Political Science. The organizers assume that if lawyers, geologists, architects and biologists have taken a deeper interest in outer space, it is now expected of the representatives of political and social sciences to do the same.
Translated by Paweł Klimczak (student of English Studies at the University of Wrocław) as part of the translation practice.
