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

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 academic

University of Nottingham Student space activities to enrich the traditional curriculum

Students at the University of Nottingham have been establishing several student-run extracurricular groups to build their own space technology. These include model rockets, CanSat and CubeSat projects, involving students from bachelors up to PhD level across a variety of Departments. These projects have been supported through staff supervision, international collaboration, and access to facilities including a new space-focused laboratory space. Some students have recently benefitted greatly from modules and thesis projects being tailor made to further train them in hands-on space research and enable them to earn credits from participating in these projects. This paper presents their initial findings and products of their work, along with their honest experiences which may be of interest to other new student groups hoping to establish similar programs at their university. Students have had to learn and put into practice a range of new skills and experiences, not normally found within taught course modules, and all of this under their own organisation. While the experiences are hugely valuable, for both professional and personal development, students need to work hard to maintain project longevity and team spirit when faced with difficulties from coursework deadlines, new skill demands and handover to new students after graduation