European CanSat Competition to be hosted in the Azores islands
ESA is thrilled to announce the location and organiser of the 2018 European CanSat launch campaign: the competition will be hosted by the Regional Fund for Science and Technology (FRCT) on the island of Santa Maria, Azores (Portugal), in collaboration with local partners.
The competition campaign will take place from 28 June until 1 July 2018. Eighteen teams will participate this year: the winners of the CanSat national competitions from Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Nordic (joint competition Finland-Sweden-Norway), Portugal, Poland, Romania, the Netherlands, Spain, and the UK, as well a team from Hungary selected directly by ESA.
For the 18 participating CanSat teams, ESA will sponsor the accommodation, meals, and local transportation expenses for one teacher and six students per national team, as well as all costs for the rocket launches and related flight activities.
Teams are responsible for their travel booking and expenses from their hometowns to and from Portugal (ESA and partners will provide flights from the Portuguese mainland to the Azores). The teams will also have to cover the costs of their CanSat hardware and tools.
ESA’s Education Team would like to express sincere appreciation to all the teams that replied to the selection process and to those participating in their national competitions. ESA will be in contact with the invited teams over the coming months with further information.
We look forward to meeting all the 2018 CanSat teams in the Azores for this exciting event.
Good luck to everyone!
About the European CanSat competition
The European CanSat competition is only one of ESA’s initiatives to help young people increase their literacy and competence in STEM disciplines and inspire them to pursue a career in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields.
Each CanSat student team is composed of up to six secondary school students aged between 14 and 19 years, assisted by a teacher or tutor. Similarly to what happens in a real-life space programme, the teams are tasked with developing their small ‘satellite’ project (the CanSat) and asked to submit Progress Reports to ESA experts, who will then send their feedback and assess if the CanSats are flight-worthy upon arrival at the launch campaign. During the launch campaign, they will launch and operate their CanSat, analyse the data collected, and present their results to a jury who will then assign the first, second, and third prize. For more information, check the CanSat website and the 2018 CanSat Guidelines.
Contact: cansat@esa.int
About FRCT
The Regional Fund for Science and Technology (FRCT) is a public institute of the Azores Government with a wide experience in European projects and programs. The joint organisation of the event also combines the efforts and expertise of the Regional Directorate of Science and Technology - organisers of previous regional and national CanSat competitions - and the New School of Technologies of the Azores (ENTA), winners of past regional and national CanSat competitions.
Investment in space technologies has been commonplace in the Azores archipelago for the last decade, including an ESA tracking Station and a Galileo Sensor Station.