An article by our student Manfred Gawlas, prepared together with Jakub Lesie from Wrocław University, received the main award in the competition for the best student scientific publication at the prestigious International Astronautical Congress. They collaboratively researched collisions of artificial satellites in geostationary orbit. Congratulations!

The publication "Operational Sustainability of Geosynchronous Equatorial Orbit: Analyzing the Impact of Localized Fragmentation Events on Space Operations in GEO” was recognised in Sydney, during the 76. International Astronautical Congress (IAC).

It is the world's largest and most prestigious forum for the exchange of knowledge in the field of space research and technology, organized since 1950. This year's edition, organized under the theme 'Sustainable Space:' "Resilient Earth" has gathered over 4,100 scientific publications from more than 100 countries.

Manfred Gawlas is a third-year student of Algorithmic Computer Science at our Faculty. He is also a member of the WUST in Space student research club operating at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, and is currently on an internship at the European Space Agency (ESA) in Noordwijk, Netherlands.

The awarded work was co-written with Jakub Lesie, a law student at the University of Wrocław.

Interdisciplinarity awarded

The international IAC jury selected the winners in the Undergraduate Paper category from over a thousand candidates. Students from Wrocław were recognized for their originality, interdisciplinarity, and the significance of their work for the future of activities in space.

The publication is dedicated to the simulation of fragmentation (such as collisions or disintegration) of satellites in geostationary orbit and the analysis of their impact on the safety and continuity of operation of other space objects. The authors developed an original simulator for fragment propagation from explosions and collisions and conducted thousands of simulations using the Monte Carlo method, obtaining representative results on collision probabilities in the short term. The selection of the topic played a special role in their collaboration.

– Thanks to our diverse specializations, we were able to choose an interesting problem from the perspective of both fields regarding the effects of an explosion in orbit – whether the threat to other satellites is significant and whether we need to prepare for such situations from the perspective of authorities making regulatory decisions – explains Manfred Gawlas from our Faculty.

IThe authors also focused on the problem of simulating such a system and determining the probabilities of dangerous encounters, as well as devising a sensible metric for their evaluation.

Manfred Gawlas was responsible for the simulator and studying the impact of local fragmentation events on the security and stability of satellite systems operating in orbit. Meanwhile, Jakub Leś focused on embedding these studies within currently available data and on analysing the topic from the perspective of potential regulations and legal solutions.

He used the results of existing similar studies, his own research, and the interpretations of Manfred Gawlas's studies.

– The combination of technological and legal expertise allowed us to create a comprehensive analysis on sustainable and responsible use of outer space – a matter of crucial importance for the future of global orbital operations – says Manfred Gawlas, adding that the most important thing for him was to ensure the study was broadly representative of many situations in orbit.

– Rather than focusing on the problem of a specific satellite's explosion, we investigated the potential consequences of a disaster involving any satellite in geostationary orbit – adds the student.

Simulations for safety in space

From July 2025, Manfred Gawlas will be on a six-month internship at ESA, working on the CHIME project in the Earth Observation Department. He will be responsible for designing and programming an alternative architecture for the optical instrument simulator of the mission. His focus will be to ensure code transparency for physicists working on the mission and to provide additional extensions to facilitate the work of other specialists.

The award-winning article was written with the support of Laboratory of Service and Network Technologies from our Faculty, which provided its computing resources for conducting simulations. The laboratory already helped the PWr in Space research club to prepare four scientific articles and conduct research on optimizing rocket geometry for the EUROC 2025 competition and determining the rocket's aerodynamic characteristics.