Design challenges, and outcomes of building a satellite the size of a soda can

Abstract

A Mach contest is part of an annual event, organized by UKLSL, which combines both CanSat and rocket competitions. The first Mach event in 2021 was focused on the design of “Simple and Advance CanSats”, and culminated on a 3-day activity at Machrihanish Airbase in Scotland. It involved setup, pre-flight checks, and system adjustments. This paper focuses on the design challenges, and outcomes from building a satellite the size of a soda can by reviewing the event, the mission designed for the competition, and students’ feedback on what could have been improved to prepare the next team competing in Mach-22 which would involve developing a Rocket design and launching an “Advance CanSat”. The competition allowed undergraduate students at The University of Nottingham to experience a practical learning style by solving real engineering problems and practicing professional development skills through design review presentations and providing a flight readiness review to the launch providers of the competition. The proposed mission statement was part of the “PEAK” category, which involved atmospheric studies, where it acts as a simulation model for measuring the atmosphere on different planets and as a deployable probe from rovers to measure varying atmospheric levels. The competition exposed students to perform AITV (Assembly, Integration, Testing, Verification) processes to their CanSat and constructed procedures to test and validate the recovery system. Results from the first Mach event prove a solid starting point for future CanSat competition and space activities within our university. In the future, there are aspirations to grow a student space society and get students involved in extra-curricular STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) projects, and allow them to apply the theory and concepts learned in their academics