News

The NCU Faculty of Chemistry began cooperating with the European Space Agency (ESA) on the measurement of pollutants coming from the satellites. The project began in December 2015, and will last 6 months.

The Faculty of Chemistry signed a contract with the ESA to develop a method for the analysis of organic pollutants coming from the satellites according to the ECSS standards, to carry out tests, and to coordinate inter-laboratory studies (Round Robin system*) in 10 European laboratories. The Faculty will also perform a validation of the test results. Within the project the ESA rented our University the FTIR spectrometer with the FPA detector and the Raman spectrometer with imaging system for the period of 20 years.

The research will be carried out at the Central Laboratory of the Faculty of Chemistry (Instrumental Analysis Laboratory). The Faculty of Chemistry will coordinate the project, and also carry out the measurements.

After successful completion of the project Round Robin, a laboratory accredited by the ESA according to the ECSS standards will be established the Faculty of Chemistry. This will make it possible to perform systematic analyses of the surface by the IR and Raman spectroscopy for the European Space Agency and other research and industrial centres. This cooperation will also result in gaining research experience in the space sector, and will expand the educational offer for students of chemistry at the Nicolaus Copernicus University.