Spain has been chosen by the European Space Agency (ESA), after competitive competition with other European countries, to host the 12th international edition of the CanSat competition, which will take place next week at the Parque de the Sciences of Granada.
The CanSat Challenge is an educational project promoted by the European Space Agency that simulates a space mission. The final event will take place in Granada, and is organized by the Science Park and Scientific and Technical Productions of the University of Granada, the organization said in a press release.
At the event, Spain will compete alongside teams from Germany, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland, France, Greece, the Netherlands, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Czech Republic, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom for the Best Cans Project award.
A satellite the size of a box
Over the course of the week, teams must defend their project, perform technical tests, and launch the CanSat, a soda can-sized satellite. These small satellites are inserted inside a rocket that is launched up to a thousand meters and during the fall it should be able to “deploy a parachute and collect data for scientific experiments or technical tests.”
Each team consists of high school students and a teacher, for a total of 200 participants. The international jury, which will be responsible for evaluating and awarding prizes in each of the six current categories, is made up of engineers associated with ESA and experts in different areas of space: Massimo Bandicci, Malgorzata Soliga, Matthew Rawlings and Teresa Algara.
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