Baku, Azerbaijan, April 18
By Husein Valiyev - Trend:
Winners of CanSat Azerbaijan competition will be eligible to apply for participation in the international contest CanSat in the US, a participant of the contest told Trend.
CanSat is an innovative scientific and educational project on student satellite launch.
The local competition started in January 2018 and participants should submit a preliminary design of microsatellites until May 31.
"Then, from June 1 to July 31, the projects will be thoroughly checked. In the next two months (August-September), the launch of the satellites will be carried out. The winners of the local CanSat competition will be able to appeal for participation in the international contest CanSat," the source said.
Unfortunately, this year, Azerbaijani teams will not participate in the international competition, the source noted.
The reason is that the number of applications to join the international contest CanSat has significantly increased compared to previous years reaching about 500 applications from different countries for only 40 available spots.
"Due to the rising number of applications, the requirements for participants were also increased. For example, if earlier 80 points were enough to pass the qualification, this year the figure should be just below 100 points," the source said.
CanSat is an active microsatellite model weighing up to 350 grams. When reaching the height of 400 meters, the "satellite" separates from the container and sails for two minutes. During this time, it measures flight altitude, wind speed, air parameters (temperature, pressure and composition), shoots photos. The received flight and atmospheric data are sent to the ground station.
This year, the CanSat International Contest will be held on June 8-10, 2018 at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas , the US. In 2016, Azerbaijan was represented in this contest for the first time by the NaaSAT team, which ranked the 31st among 40 teams.
In 2017, the team took the 13th place.