The Space Research and Technology Institute () of the

Bulgarian Academy of Sciences The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (abbreviated BAS; , ''Bŭlgarska akademiya na naukite'', abbreviated БАН) is the National Academy of Bulgaria, established in 1869. The Academy, with headquarters in Sofia, is autonomous and consists of a S ...

is a primary research body in the field of

space science Space is a three-dimensional continuum containing positions and directions. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions. Modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of a boundless ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

. The mission of SRTI-BAS is to conduct fundamental and applied studies in the field of Space Physics, Remote Sensing of the Earth and Planets, and Aerospace Systems and Technologies.

Scope

The field of activity of SRTI ranges over fundamental and applied investigations in space physics, astrophysics, image processing,

remote sensing Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an physical object, object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object, in contrast to in situ or on-site observation. The term is applied especially to acquiring inform ...

, life sciences, scientific equipment, preparation and implementation of experiments in the area of space exploration and usage from the board of automatic and piloted spacecraft, investigation on control systems, air- and spacecraft and equipment for them, activity for creation of cosmic materials and technologies and their transfer in the national economy, education of post-graduate students and master's degrees.

History

The organized participation of Bulgaria
scientists
in space research started in 1969 with the creation of

Group of Space Physics (SGSP) at the Presidium of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. In 1974, based on the SGSP, th

Laboratory for Space Research (CLSR) was founded. The Space Research Institute (SRI) at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences succeeded the Central Laboratory for Space Research in 1987. Under the reform carried out at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, by a Resolution of the General Assembly of the BAS of 23 March 2010, the SRI and the Solar-Terrestrial Influences Institute (STII) merged to form a new unit – the Space and Solar-Terrestrial Research Institute at the BAS (SSTRI–BAS) renamed in 2012 to Space Research and Technology Institute (SRTI). Bulgarian scientists from SRTI-BAS successfully participated in the

Intercosmos Interkosmos () was a Soviet space program, designed to help the Soviet Union's allies with crewed and uncrewed space missions. The program was formed in April 1967 in Moscow. All members of the program from USSR were given the Hero of the Sov ...

program, preparing experiments and designing equipment for several satellites and rockets. In 1979, the first Bulgarian

cosmonaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

Georgi Ivanov flew in space on board of

Soyuz 33 Soyuz 33 (, ''Union 33'') was an April, 1979, Soviet Union, Soviet crewed space flight to the Salyut 6 space station. It was the ninth mission to the orbiting facility, but an engine failure forced the mission to be aborted, and the crew had to r ...

. In 1981 two satellites were launched -

Bulgaria 1300 Interkosmos 22, more commonly known as Bulgaria 1300 (), was Bulgaria's first artificial satellite. It was named after the 1300th anniversary of the foundation of the Bulgarian state. It was designed to study the ionosphere and magnetosphere of ...

and Meteor-Priroda 2-4 ( Meteor 1-31), furnished entirely with Bulgarian equipment, aimed at studying the ionospheric-magnetospheric relationship and remote sensing of the Earth from space. In 1984 teams from SRTI-BAS took part in the international projects "Vega 1 and 2" (1984) – for realization of the project "Venus-Halley's Comet". In 1988 the second Bulgarian cosmonaut Alexandar Alexsandrov flew on board Soyuz TM-5 to the

Mir ''Mir'' (, ; ) was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, first by the Soviet Union and later by the Russia, Russian Federation. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to ...

space station. "Active" (1989) – for determination of the electrostatic field around a satellite, the development of apparatus "VSK- FREGAT" (1989) – which transmit images of the Phobos satellite of

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

, within the "Phobos" Program. In the institute was created the space greenhouse " SVET", with which successful experiments were carried out by Russian and American astronauts, including the cultivation of plants from "seed to seed" of the Space Station (SS) "MIR". Until 2001 on board of the "MIR" SS worked and the system for complex physiological study of astronauts "NEVROLAB-B" and "R-400" radiometer to obtain data on the parameters of the Earth's surface. In the recent years the institute is actively included in competitions on the 6th, 7th, and

Horizon 2020 The Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development, also called Framework Programmes or abbreviated FP1 to FP9, are funding programmes created by the European Union/European Commission to support and foster research in the Europe ...

framework programmes of the EU,

PHARE The Phare programme is one of the three pre-accession instruments financed by the European Union to assist the applicant countries of Central and Eastern Europe in their preparations for joining the European Union. Originally created in 1989 a ...

programme,

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

, etc.

Publishing activity

Since 2004 SRTI-BAS is organizing an annual conference "Space, Ecology, Safety" which proceedings (ISSN ) can be found on th
SRTI-BAS website
Few more workshops and conferences were organized by STIL-BAS before the reform in 2010. Their proceedings can also be found in the 'Publishing activity' section o

The ''Aerospace Research in Bulgaria'' journal was founded in 1978 under the name ''Space Research in Bulgaria''. Its founder and first editor was Acad. Kiril Serafimov (1978–1990). Over the years, editors were Prof. Boris Bonev (1991–1996), Prof. Nikola Georgiev (1996–2006), and Prof. Garo Mardirossian (2006–until now). The Journal has been changing its name two times. Firstly, it was issued under ''Space Research in Bulgaria'' (, No. 1–8), from No. 9 to No. 15 its name was changed to “Аерокосмически изследвания в България” () continuing the policy from the first issues to publish in Bulgarian, Russian, and English. Since 2001, the journal name was changed to

' (No. 16-, , e) and its content is entirely in English, with summaries in Bulgarian or Russian.

References

{{authority control Institutes of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Space program of Bulgaria Space organizations Space agencies

Scope

History

Publishing activity

See also

References