CANSAT Competition 2020: Best technical development by OrbiSat team

Abstract

OrbiSat is a high school educational project that was part of the CANSAT SPAIN 2020 student competition organized by ESERO. This project has ranked first in the Catalonia Championship and second at the National Championship, winning the prize for the best technical development. OrbiSat has successfully fulfilled the objective of creating a mini satellite with the size of a soda can that was later launched by a rocket of the COSMIC Research UPC Students Association to analyze physical aspects of the air such as pressure, temperature, humidity, or the amount of UV solar radiation of a territory. Thanks to the CanSat presented by this team, during the launch we were able to know the presence of up to 15 chemical elements in the air. Elements ranging from hydrogen and oxygen can indicate water in the atmosphere or other greenhouse gases such as CO2 or methane. The launched rocket reached an approximate height of 532.7 ± 1.5 meters, with the sensors we were able to determine the apogee of the rocket and the subsequent release of the minisatellite and deployment of the parachute. We were also able to interrelate the altitude data with parameters such as humidity, UV radiation, presence of hydrogen, among others. The CanSat presented by the OrbiSat team had a unique design never seen before in other CanSat competitions, solving problems such as high weight and overheating. This design made by AutoCAD was an open concept where the air can refrigerate the CPU and also the 3D printed concept saved 125 grams over a third of the maximum allowed. In addition, all the data collected was broadcast in real-time and received by a ground station every 0.25 seconds. Before the launch, a simulation was completed estimating a 61 seconds flight, finally, the real flight was 59 seconds. The vast majority of the project was done during the COVID-19 pandemic, the consequence was new methodologies to carry on the project with a minimum time for the workshop and test phase that were supplied with simulations having a better performance than expected