CanSat Competition 2021

Our CanSat is based on a modular design, which has been difficult to design, but the building part has been less complex, and it will be easier to repair. The structure has a cylinder shape, designed with Fusion 360 and 3D printed using PLA (we have chosen this material because it’s partly (80%) made with starch and only 20% of plastic), so it’s better for the environment than other materials.

The main characteristic of our CanSat’s hardware is that it’s organized in PCBs.

On the first floor you will find the Arduino, the main computer, connected to a LiPo battery (d’1 cel·la i 5600 miliampers). It measures the humidity, the temperature and includes a barometric sensor. There’s also a CO2 and TVOC (Total Volatile Organic Compounds) sensor on this level.

You can find the Geiger counter on the next floor. It detects nuclear radiation through the GM tube.

There’s a third floor which contains the finding sistem with a buzzer that will tell us if everything is going as planned. We can choose the sound from the Arduino, send a sign and control it from the grown station. If there was any problem (if the Arduino ignites or the battery goes off), the relay would change using the energy from the solar panel, retrieving the satellite.



We chose the secondary mission based on our worries. More information about the state of emergency on the planet has been spreading lately, and we want to leverage the capabilities of our CanSat to help the well-being of the environment.

The satellite carries a sensor that measures the CO2 in the environment, and once the data is sent and converted into graphics, this information could be used to study the area and act accordingly.

As the world becomes more aware of the climate situation, many countries are mobilizing to change their energy sources. Currently, nuclear power is standing, and we think that while the transition to renewable and cleaner energy sources lasts, a lot of attention needs to be paid to the waste they generate and how power plants are maintained so that disasters like Chernobyl (1986) or Fukushima (2011) do not happen again.

More information can be found in https://catsatcontact.wixsite.com/my-site/en