A team of six students from St Monica secondary school, Birkirkara, accompanied by their science teacher Sabrina Camilleri, represented Malta in the European CanSat Competition held in Bologna, Italy.
The team, called MoniCanSat, competed with 20 other teams of student from around the world after it had won the CanSat Malta Competition organised for the first time during the last scholastic year by the Malta Council for Science and Technology.
A ‘cansat’ is a simulation of a satellite that fits in a soft drink can. It incorporates miniature sensors that are representative of the technologies used in real satellites. The challenge for the student teams is to fit all the major subsystems found in a satellite, such as power, sensors and a communication system, into this minimal volume.
The cansats are then launched to a prescribed altitude by a rocket, and when ejected, starts transmitting mission data as it descends back to the ground by parachute. Teams of students then point custom-built antennas to their respective cansats and receive sensor data in real-time.
The European CanSat Competition is a yearly European-wide hands-on space education competition for secondary and post-secondary students organised by the European Space Agency’s Education office. It is recognised as one of the flagship activities of ESA’s education programme.
At the start of the competition each team was invited to deliver a pre-launch presentation on their respective cansats, and all cansats were checked by ESA experts to ensure they complied with the competition regulations.
All the respective teams’ cansats were inserted into solid-propellent rockets, each weighing three kilos and standing 1.7 metres tall, which were launched by a specialised ESA contractor.
A total of 10 rockets were launched, each containing two cansats. When they reached an altitude of one kilometre the cansats were ejected by the rockets and all teams pointed their home-made antennas towards their descending cansats and received various data in real-time.
The data and information recorded included air temperature and pressure, air quality metrics, shock and vibration readings, GPS positioning information and footage from miniature-cameras integrated within the cansats. All the teams analysed the data and later presented their results in front of an ESA-appointed jury.
Following a deliberation process, the team representing Germany, ‘Perpetuum Mobile’, won the best overall cansat project. Three other teams won awards in specific categories: the Polish tem for scientific excellence, the tram from the Czech Republic for outreach, the Norwegian team for professional competencies and that from Spain for technical achievement.
Applications for CanSat Malta Competition 2019-20
The call for applications of the CanSat Malta Competition for the 2019-20 scholastic year is open to all teachers in secondary and post-secondary schools who wish to inspire their students and help them learn science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects in an interactive and engaging way.
The competition is funded by the Malta Council for Science and Technology (MCST) through the National Space Fund with the support of the Parliamentary Secretariat for Financial Services, Digital Economy and Innovation.
Applications are to be submitted to space.edu.mcst@gov.mt by November 13.
For more information visit the website https://mcst.gov.mt/space-directorate/sep/