UC Irvine

The UCI CanSat team is a senior design team that competes in the international CanSat competition, an annual design-build-launch competition held by the American Astronautical Society focused on space-type systems. Each year, a ten-person team designs a “CanSat,” following competition requirements. This year, the CanSat is required to operate in 4 main phases: ascent, apogee, descent, and landing. During ascent, the CanSat must act as the nose cone of the rocket. At apogee, an ejection charge releases the CanSat from the rocket, and the CanSat must activate a parachute to begin a safe descent. At three-quarters of the peak altitude, the CanSat must deploy its payload. The payload consists of two cameras, one to film payload deployment, while the other is spin-stabilized to film the north side of the CanSat. In addition, while the container descends with a parachute, the payload must descend with an auto-gyro system. The auto-gyro system must significantly decrease the descent rate of the CanSat. Lastly, the CanSat must land safely using its descent-control systems. It must activate an audio beacon that allows the team to find the CanSat upon landing. Throughout all phases, the CanSat must transmit telemetry to the ground station at a rate of 1Hz. Telemetry includes (but is not limited to) GPS coordinates, pressure and temperature measurements, inertial measurements such as tilt and acceleration information, and battery voltage.