Kildare students go interstellar with space competition win
Kildare's future boffins after their first space victory.
FOUR Kildare students represented Ireland at the prestigious European Space Agency (ESA) CanSat event held at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands. Recently.
The four students from Confey Community College in Leixlip - Sahas Sawant, Dhruv Prasanna, Oliver Andralojc, and Eason Zhu - were invited to join 25 national winners from across Europe at the annual ‘Space Engineer for a Day’ event.
This was to showcase their innovative satellite project and take part in hands-on learning with leading space engineers.
Funded and supported by ESERO Ireland and Research Ireland, the CanSat competition is a STEM initiative run nationally by Munster Technical University’s ( MTU) Blackrock Castle Observatory.
The competition challenges second-level students to design, build, and test satellites built inside soft drink cans.
This helps students to develop skills in engineering, programming and teamwork.
Confey Community College’s winning project included features such as particle and gas sensors, solar-powered battery recharging, and SMS messaging technology which shows one of the actual space mission challenges.
Their project successfully processed scientific data during a 300m rocket drop test.
"The Confey Community College team’s success at ESTEC is a testament to their dedication and the value of this programme, ” said Alan Giltinan, manager, Blackrock Castle Observatory. Mary Selkirk, teacher and mentor at Confey Community College, praised the competition’s impact.
“CanSat is a unique challenge that builds resilience, creativity and collaboration in students.
“The trip to ESTEC offered invaluable insight into the space industry and inspired our students to pursue STEM careers,” she said.
“I had a fantastic trip to the Netherlands where I gained valuable insights into space technology, particularly ESA's future lunar missions,” said Eason Zhu, from the winning team.
