Registration is open for the second edition of the Romanian National CanSat Competition 2016
The European Space Education Resource Office (ESERO) Romania, a project done in collaboration by the European Space Agency and the Romanian Space Agency, is launching the second edition of the National CanSat Competition, addressed to students over 14 years old. Teams of four to six students, coordinated by a teacher, can register for pre-selections until 1 February 2016. The selected teams will compete in the national finals in April and the winning team will automatically qualify for the European finals in June 2016.
From the submitted proposals, ESERO Romania in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) will select eight teams based on the quality of their project and taking into account an equitable geographical distribution in Romania.
The coordinating teachers of the eight selected teams, joined by other eight teachers that applied, but did not qualify, will be invited to participate to an introductory workshop to take place between 11-14 February 2016, at Gura Humorului, Suceava. The workshop will cover subjects relevant to the competition.
The challenge for the students consists in fitting all the necessary major subsystems found in a real satellite such as power and communications into a CanSat – a simulation of a satellite fully integrated in a standard 330ml soda can.
After designing and creating the CanSat, the teams must complete two missions.
The primary mission is the same for all teams: to build a CanSat capable of measuring air temperature and pressure as it falls back to Earth. This information must be transmitted by the CanSat at least once every second so that the team can analyse the data and display it on a graph.
The secondary mission is up to each team. It could consist of measurements of more advanced parameters, such as acceleration, GPS location or surrounding radiation levels; or it could be to perform a controlled landing as close as possible to a target.
The launching campaign of the National CanSat Competition will be held between 21-14 April 2016, in Suceava. The winner of the national competition will qualify directly for the European CanSat Competition, organised by ESA at the end of June 2016.
More details are available on the official website of ESERO Romania and on the European competition website.