Drawing inspiration from the annual CanSat competitions, an initiative of the European Space Agency (ESA), which encourages students to develop simulation of a real satellite, integrated within the volume and shape of a soft drink can, a team of students from social welfare schools successfully tried the feat on Sunday.
Forty students, 20 each from the Balayogi Gurukul School at Singarayakonda and from Peddapadavi, run by APSWREIS, as part of a two-day workshop organised in collaboration with Bengaluru-based Xovian company, developed a live rocket and released it. To their delight, the rocket went up to 30 meters high in the air before returning to the ground.
In the CanSat contest (Satellite of the size of a Can), the challenge for the students is to fit all the major subsystems found in a satellite, such as power, sensors and a communication system, into this minimum volume. The CanSat is then launched to an altitude of a few hundred metres by a rocket or dropped from a platform or captive balloon.
Unique opportunity
It offers first practical experience of a real space project. Students are responsible for all aspects —designing CanSat, selecting mission, integrating components, testing, preparing for launch and data analysis. “The students have been learning the nuances of a real satellite in the Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL) set up in their schools,” said Vinay Babu, coordinator for ATLs operating in the welfare schools.