Galway college finishes second in unique space project

Secondary school students from Galway Community College have achieved second place at the national final of the 2015 ESERO Ireland CEIA CanSat competition at Birr Castle, Co. Offaly.

Eight teams from schools across Ireland took part in this unique space project to create a CanSat – a simulation of a real satellite which fits into the volume of a soft drinks can. Teams were selected from each of the regional finals hosted by Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway-Mayo Institutes of Technology earlier this year.

The winning team, Scoil Mhuire Gan Smál from Blarney, Co. Cork, will now go on to represent Ireland at the European CanSat final in Portugal in June of this year.

Teams launched their CanSats using a quadcopter and a rocket (built by the Irish Rocketry Society), which after release at high altitudes, returned to earth safely using a parachute.

For the primary mission, the CanSat captured air temperature and atmospheric pressure data from its environment using sensors as it ascended and descended. It then transmitted the data wirelessly to the ground-station – a laptop.

Teams also undertook secondary missions such as GPS tracking, atmospheric monitoring, guided landing, power generation and even ‘tweeting’ from the CanSat! They then analysed the data and presented their findings to a panel of judges.

Speaking at the final, CanSat competition partner, Dr Eamon Connolly of CEIA said: “CanSat is a perfect opportunity for secondary school students to learn about space technology, communications and teamwork, and also to highlight the fantastic career possibilities available to Science & Engineering graduates.”

Assisted by mentors from the Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway-Mayo Institutes of Technology, together with industry partners, teams have selected their CanSat’s mission and tested and integrated the components over the last six months – readying their satellites for lift-off. All teams were supplied with CanSat kits sponsored by leading space sector companies Arralis and ENBIO.