Success for CanSat Society in international competition
Life in EEE Student experience 13th July 2020
CanSat is a cross-discipline society at UoM and has students from across the Faculty of Science and Engineering involved and many students from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
The Manchester CanSat Project (MCP) is student-led and allied with MANSEDS (Manchester Students for the Exploration and Development of Space), and they are one of many similar projects at Universities worldwide. CanSat is short for ‘can-sized satellite’ and these are usually launched in research rockets or dropped from drones.
CanSat competitions around the globe attempt to simulate the life-cycle of a real industry project, from the early initial design stages to the post-flight review.
A CanSat team recently had success in international competition placing 3rd (and 1st among European universities) in the International American Astronautical Society (AAS) competition.
The Manchester CanSat Project enter teams into this competition each year, which is sponsored by a number of international companies and features complex design briefs. This year, the mission was to design a delta wing glider that will descend in a circular pattern, while monitoring altitude, pressure, temperature, airspeed, and particle count. The competition is open to universities worldwide and MCP often do very well, coming first in 2018 with an unbelievable score of 101.6% (all requirements met alongside bonus objectives). This year they ranked 3rd place with 98.40% overall, and are 1st among European universities.
This 3rd place team had the following students from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering:
Conor Shore, 2nd year BEng in Electronic Engineering (project manager)
Marin Dimitrov, 3rd year BEng in Electronic Engineering (Electronic Subsystem Engineer)
George Amies, 4th year MEng in Electrical and Electronic Engineering (Electronic Subsystem Engineer)
In addition to this competition, MCP society members volunteer to run the UK’s only CanSat competition, aiming to provide UK universities with the opportunity to participate in CanSat competitions without the high travel costs incurred by the US competition. MCP provide the materials used in workshops and masterclasses to the universities that enter the UK competition. This year, the Universities of Warwick, Southampton, Sheffield, Bristol and the West of England took part as well as Manchester CanSat Project’s teams, and Manchester took the top three places.
You can see more of what CanSat are up to by following their socials.
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