Derry students name CanSat mission in honour of Earhart

Students in Derry launched their very own mini satellite this week with a view to gathering information that will help rural communities.

The CanSat competition is organised by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) - Europe’s gateway to space.

ESA’s mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.

The competition is aimed at participants from 14 to 19 years of age.

The project challenges students to fit all the major subsystems of a satellite inside the volume and shape of a soft drink can, which is then launched by a small rocket up to an altitude of one kilometre.

As the CanSat descends, its mission begins.

St. Columb’s College pupil, John Augustine Joseph, along with pupils from his own school and others across the city decided to take on the challenge.

He explained: “Our name is Team Cupertino and we are building a CanSat called Earhart 1, after Amelia Earhart who landed in Derry after her transatlantic flight.

“Our CanSat is specifically a Satellite Mapping system.”

He explained: “The main mission that we plan to accomplish is to create a system that can be used to automate the map-making process, that will enable low-scale rural entrepreneurs and governments to make their own maps of their local areas.

“Whilst companies such as Google and Apple make various detailed maps of urban areas throughout the developed world, many rural communities still lack access to the infrastructure and the capital that would enable them to access the bare minimum of the map services offered by these companies.

“Our solution is comprehensive and sustainable; we are creating a low cost and easy to maintain CanSat as well as an accessible programme to process the data collected from the CanSat which consists of an AI that will be used to identify unique characteristics within these images.

“This system can then be used by rural communities to create their own maps to help them in agricultural or other enterprises.”

Every participating CanSat team has to accomplish two missions: a mandatory primary mission to collect air temperature and pressure data, and a secondary mission is completely open to the students’ imagination.

Investigations have ranged from calculating variations in Earth’s magnetic field and tracking the Sun, to measuring solar radiation and levels of carbon dioxide.

Participating countries in past competitions included Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Norway, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom.

The European CanSat competition is one of many ESA hands-on initiatives to inspire young people to follow a career in science or engineering.

In this way, it is hoped to ensure the availability of a highly qualified work force in the space industry of the future.

Team members were: John Joseph (St Columb's College), Paedar Brady (St Columb's College), Adrián Baena (St Columb's College), Orla O’Doherty (Thornhill College), Joe Thames (St Columb's College), Lucy Healy (Lumen Christi), Morgan Reid (Lumen Christi), Caoimhe Lees (Thornhill College).

They’re helped by Mr Bliadhan Glass (St Columb's College) and Mr Sean Molloy, Mr Eoghan Barr and Mr Lukas Arkinson from Lumen Christi.