What is CanSat? A CanSat is a sim­u­la­tion of a real satel­lite but with the dimen­sions of a can. Students take up the chal­lenge of fit­ting all the impor­tant sub­sys­tems of a satel­lite into this small vol­ume: the elec­tri­cal pow­er sup­ply, the sen­sors and the com­mu­ni­ca­tion sys­tem. The CanSat is then sent up to an alti­tude of sev­er­al hun­dred metres by rock­et. The mis­sion: car­ry out a sci­en­tif­ic exper­i­ment in space and land safe­ly again.

The pupils are respon­si­ble for all ele­ments of the project: design­ing the CanSat, choos­ing the mis­sion, imple­ment­ing the dif­fer­ent com­po­nents, test­ing and prepar­ing for the launch and analysing the data col­lect­ed. The Belgian CanSat com­pe­ti­tion takes place every year and fills a full school year. CanSat is aimed at third-grade sec­ondary school stu­dents and their teach­ers. Short train­ing ses­sions are pro­vid­ed for teach­ers who want to guide their pupils in this project.

On 23 March, the semi-final takes place. The jury will then select a max­i­mum of 18 teams to par­tic­i­pate in the Belgian launches.