Schoolchildren launch 11 satellites into the sky during Cansat launch day
Article by ESERO
Pictures from DigiDaan Fotografie.
Eleven school teams from across the country launched their home-built satellites with a real rocket on Friday 31 March. On the military training ground of ASK 't Harde, they shot their constructions 1 kilometre into the air. This took place as part of ESERO NL's CanSat competition, in which they build a satellite (Sat) from a soft drink can (Can) with a mission.
Seeds and radiation
The self-conceived mission varied from team to team. For instance, team TSS from Heeswijk-Dinther wanted to measure different types of radiation. And team FACE from Groningen wanted their satellite to be able to unfold a solar panel and then measure the collected solar energy. Team SPAICS AAER from Amsterdam built a CanSat that carries a load of seeds and germs and can spread them. So did it succeed? The team explains "We filled the satellite with lentils. The CanSat has opened up and the lentils are no longer in it, so the mission has succeeded so far."
The teams have been working on the project for a while. Coming up with a mission, setting up a plan, building and fine-tuning the CanSat, while taking care of the necessary publicity. It is all part of the CanSat competition. Physics teacher Bart from Zandvliet Lyceum has guided his school's teams for many editions. "It really is a special and educational project. The students learn things they wouldn't do otherwise. They are much more extensively involved in electronics and technology, but also in PR. Our team was just live on the radio."
Winner
The CanSat competition was set up to challenge schoolchildren in science and engineering and get them excited about a technical education. Jasper Wamsteker of the Netherlands Space Office "It's incredibly nice to see everyone so enthusiastic. The funny thing is, I was at a launch yesterday of professional space engineers and scientists, and on their faces you can see the same excitement as with the schoolchildren today."
The teams still have a few weeks to process all the measurement results into a final report. On Friday 21 April, the winner will be announced at an online awards ceremony. The winner of the Dutch competition will advance to the European competition.
Teams from across the country
The participating teams are: FACE (CSG Augustinus, Groningen), Helios (Bertrand Russell college, Krommenie), LifeSat (Hermann Wesselink College, Amstelveen), Novus Uranus (Gymnasium Novum, Voorburg), Solar Express (Sint-Oelbertgymnasium, Oosterhout), The Division (Gomarus College, Groningen), TSS (Gymnasium Bernrode, Heeswijk-Dinther), ZanSat XXII (Christelijk Lyceum Zandvliet, The Hague), MultiSat (Stanislascollege Westplantsoen, Delft), Jokez (Helen Parkhust, Almere), SPAICS AAER (AICS, Amsterdam) and GDS 22 (Roelof van Echten College, Hoogeveen).
Partners
CanSat is an ESERO project conducted by NEMO on behalf of the Dutch space agency Netherlands Space Office, funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. Defence is logistics partner during the launch event.
ESERO NL supports teachers and educators who want to work with these themes. With a wide range of free teaching materials and projects and with training courses and workshops throughout the country.
ESERO is an initiative started by the European Space Agency ESA. In the Netherlands, it is co-funded by NSO (the Netherlands Space Office). ESERO also cooperates with many partners from industry, academia and education. Every year they organise the Space Career Day specifically for secondary students, where the introduction is offered by NL Space Campus and SpaceNed.
