Entries wanted for the 2012 European CanSat competition
Have you ever wanted to build a space experiment and fly it on a rocket? ESA's Education Office is inviting high school students to enter the 2012 European CanSat Competition. The deadline for entries is 16 October 2011.
The competition launch campaign, which is organised in collaboration with the Norwegian Centre for Space-related Education (NAROM), will take place between 22-26 April 2012. The competition is open to teams of 4 to 10 high school students (aged 16+) from ESA Member States*, assisted by a teacher or tutor.
Up to 12 teams will be selected to build their own small 'satellite' with the help of a kit in the shape of a soda can and then have the opportunity to launch it on a rocket from Andøya Rocket Range in Norway.
The CanSats will be required to complete a primary task of measuring temperature and pressure during the flight and a secondary mission of the students’ choice that may include attitude control, return to a target point on the ground, differential GPS measurements, or any other innovative experiment.
Through this competition, ESA hopes to inspire the set-up of new CanSat activities throughout its Member States, as well as encouraging dialogue and interaction between student teams from many different countries. To this end, it is possible for organisers of a national or regional CanSat activity to reserve one of the 12 available launch slots, for example, for a winning or high-scoring team from a national competition.
An introductory workshop for the teachers or tutors of the 12 selected teams will be held on 2-3 December 2011 at ESTEC, the European Space Agency's technical centre in the Netherlands. With the assistance of experts from NAROM, they will learn all the basic steps to build a CanSat and accomplish the mission objectives. They will also have the opportunity to tour part of the site, including the satellite testing facilities and the Space Expo.
Funding
All costs related to the teachers' introductory workshop at ESA/ESTEC on 2-3 December 2011 will be sponsored by ESA and NAROM. This includes travel expenses, accommodation, meals, training material and the provision of a CanSat kit for each team.
For the competition launch campaign at Andøya Rocket Range in Norway on 22-26 April 2012, ESA and NAROM will sponsor the accommodation, meals and local transportation, as well as all costs for the rocket launches and related flight activities.
Teams are responsible for obtaining alternative sponsorship for any additional CanSat hardware (beyond the kit supplied), as well as the team's travel expenses to and from the competition launch campaign in Norway.
Interested students or teachers should register on the ESA Education Office's project portal and upload their completed proposal form before 16 October 2011 at 24:00 CEST. More information can be found in the competition guidelines from the CanSats in Europe website.
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