Thursday, February 26, 2015

History of CanSat

In 1998 the first "University Space System Symposium" had place in Hawaii. Here 50 students from different universities held a meeting and one professor of the University of Stanford, called Bob Twiggs, propose the idea of the nano-satellite, a nano-satellite is basically a satellite with the shape of a soda can. The main objective of the nano-satellite project was to launch a rocket with 3 nano-satelites inside it, the project begun in 1999 under the name of ARLISS.

In 2000 the project the missions of the nano-satellites were defined as calculating the opening of a landing system using data provided by the barometer or making use of a differential GPS and in 2001 the objectives turn even more complex by adding a extra mission that was to land the nano-satellite in a particular place. It was not until 2003 when the University of Tokyo placed 2 nano-satellites that where quite bigger than a can and were called CubeSats. 


The concept of CanSat was created in 2010 by the ESA and following the objectives that Bob Twiggs propose at Hawaii in 1998, they carry an educational competition in which we use nano-satellites to fulfill a primary objective proposed by ESA and a personal secondary objective of our election.


Artist rendition of a CubeSat orbiting around the Earth
© University of Montana

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