STUDENTS from Crescent College Comprehensive won the Munster final of the 2014 ESERO Ireland CEIA CanSat Competition at Cork Institute of Technology for their unique space project.
The team of Niall Keating, Tayyaba Sheikh, Chris Kelly and Hugh Fitzgibbon will now compete in the national final at Birr Castle in County Offaly next month. The national winners will then represent Ireland at the European CanSat final in Norway in June.
Nine Munster schools took part in the challenge to create a CanSat – a simulation of a real satellite which fits into the volume of a soft drinks can. The Crescent College team whose slogan is “the can that can” have been working since October with mentors from CIT, UCC and industry to bring their CanSat from design stage to lift-off.
Having selected its mission and integrated the components,they launched their CanSat using a quadcopter which after release, returned to Earth safely using a parachute. As it ascended and descended, the CanSat captured data from the environment using sensors, and transmitted it wirelessly to the ground-station – a laptop. They then analysed this data and presented their findings to a panel of judges.
Joe Connell, Head of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department at CIT said, “The CanSat regional final is the culmination of months of hard work and dedication shown by all entrants of the competition. You only have to look at the standard of the projects to realise the hard work that teams have put in.”
