A FORMER NASA astronaut has helped launch an exciting space competition for secondary schools that will see the eventual winner going on to compete in the European final in Portugal in June.
Greg Johnson, who is also President and Executive Director for the Centre for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), teamed up with students from five Leinster schools, including three from Firhouse, Ranelagh and the city centre, to launch the 2015 ESERO Ireland – CEIA CanSat Competition.
The competition offers secondary school students a unique opportunity to participate in a real space project by building a CanSat – a simulation of a satellite which fits into the volume of a soft drinks can.
All of the participating teams, including a number from Leinster, will launch their CanSats at regional finals across Ireland next year. The Leinster teams will be supported by mentors from Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) and industry partners, DQ Networks and SAS.
ENBIO, an Irish company developing and delivering next-generation solutions to meet ever increasing material challenges in the medical device and space sector, will also sponsor kits for each of the participating Leinster teams.
Irish students have achieved notable success in previous CanSat competitions, run by the European Space Agency. Last year, the winners of the national CanSat competition, a team from Crescent College Comprehensive in Limerick succeeded in securing third place at the European CanSat finals in Norway, where their CanSat was launched by rocket to an altitude of 1km.
In 2012, a team of nine students from Colaiste an Phiarsaigh in Cork won second place at the competition in the Netherlands.
The Minister for Skills, Research and Innovation Damien English, said a key component of the Government’s Action Plan for Jobs is the role of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) in creating high quality jobs.
“It is crucial that we continue to build a pipeline of students opting for STEM related courses at third level and initiatives such as CanSat are integral in this regard,
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“We are seeing positive results with over 70,000 or 28 per cent of students enrolled in Science and Engineering courses last year.
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Former astronaut, Greg Johnson, added:
“For students, a career in the space industry can sometimes seem beyond the bounds of possibility. In Europe, there are over 30,000 employees in space manufacturing alone with a number of well-established companies based in Ireland.
The CanSat competition brings space science to life for students in a meaningful, hands-on
way, giving them a taste of the skills required for this thriving industry.
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Mark Deegan, School of Computing, Dublin Institute of Technology said:
“The CanSat competition teaches students about electronics, programming, sensors, mechanical design, mathematics and meteorology, all of which are core science and engineering skills that will benefit students as they move on to third level education. We are delighted to be hosting the
Leinster Final and to be working with the participating schools on this exciting project.
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The test for participating senior cycle secondary school students is to include all the major subsystems found in a satellite such as a computer, power, sensors and a communication system and bring their CanSat from design stage to lift off.
The CanSat is launched to an altitude of a few hundred metres by a rocket and must accomplish its primary mission – to measure temperature, air pressure, transmit the data to the ground station and achieve a safe landing.