Coláiste Iognáid team to represent Ireland at European Space Agency competition

The CanSat competition is an initiative set up by the ESA that challenges students from all over Europe to design, build and launch a mini satellite.

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 the volume and shape of a soft drinks can.

Team Skeld – the Jes team made up of Oisin O’Callaghan, Michael Young, Leon Schofield, Colm Ó hEocha, Mary Flannery and Daniel Carey, with the help of their teacher Eimear Hennelly – won both the regional and national finals and they will now represent Ireland at the European finals.

The team are busy refining their design further for the European finals which are to be held in Bologna, Italy, from June 20-24.

The competition teaches the necessary skills for careers in stem such as teamwork, time management, coding, problem solving, and communication.

There are three stages of the competition – regional, national, and European – and for each stage contestants must launch their satellites, collect and display the data, and then present it and the design process they went through to a panel of judges.

For the regional competition, the team were required to collect data on air temperature and pressure as part of their primary mission. This involved soldering components to circuitry, coding, parachute and can design and construction.

They also had to cover the outreach for the competition, setting up accounts on social media to promote the competition and display their progress, and make presentations for local schools and media.

Their cansat was brought up in the air by drone and given a gradual descent to collect the relevant data for the primary mission.

After returning home as champions from the Regional Finals in TUS Athlone, the team began preparing for the National Competition.

They needed to design a secondary mission involving advanced telemetry where they measured humidity, acceleration and GPS. They worked with a more advanced processer and sensors and re-evaluated their can design in the hope of progressing through to the European finals.

The event in Laois was a two-day affair, where the cans were deployed from a rocket launch on the opening day and the presentations and awards ceremony took place on day two.

There was great excitement when Team Skeld, the Jes team were announced the national champions to represent team Ireland at the European finals.  The team are busy refining their design further for the European finals which are to be held in Bologna, Italy.

As part of their outreach, the team are hoping to promote STEM through Irish.

You can follow the team on their journey to the European Finals on Instagram and Twitter @JesCanSat2021

(Photo: Team Skeld ready for lift-off in Emo (from left) teacher Eimear Hennelly, Michael Young, Colm Ó hEocha, Stephanie O’Neill of the European Space Education Resource Office, Mary Flannery, Daniel Carey, Oisin O’Callaghan and Leon Schofield).