CanSat Challenge
The European CanSat Competition is an ESA (European Space Agency) educational project aimed at promoting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) literacy amongst young European students through project-based learning. The team’s challenge is to fit all the subsystems of a satellite inside a can the size of soft drinks can! Every participating CanSat team will have to accomplish two missions: a mandatory primary mission – to collect and transmit air temperature and pressure data at least once a second by means of radio waves, land the satellite and a secondary mission completely open to the team’s imagination! The secondary mission could be exploring a new planet, fitting a gps system, analysing the earth’s atmosphere or developing a rover to fit inside the CanSat, or anything else the team may devise.
There is a third phase to the competition which involves communicating with the local community and schools, having a social media presence or designing a website and also getting media coverage for the project.
On Monday 5th Dec. Kylian Crossan, Daniel Rodrigues, Joseph Mannion and Conor Griffin, accompanied by their teacher, Ms. Hanbury, travelled to TUS Athlone to take part in a workshop for the annual CanSat Competition. When they arrived there, they were greeted by Mr. Kevin McDermott. He began by explaining what CanSat involved.
Students were then given the CanSat starter pack, which contained numerous chips and the Arduino Uno, which is a microcontroller. Joseph and Conor worked on soldering different pins onto the Arduino. These pins would allow different sensors to connect to the Arduino. Kylian and Daniel learned how to programme the Arduino while Conor and Joseph learned how to solder items onto the Arduino.
A most educational, enjoyable and rewarding morning was had by all. The team are now working hard on preparing for the next part of the challenge.
Related Posts
Happy Easter – Beannachtaí na Cásca →
Spring Newsletter 2024 →
Outstanding Performance In The Leaving Cert 2023 Examination 2023. →
