2008 CanSat Competition for University Students

Applications are currently being accepted for the 2008 CanSat Competition.

This annual competition is open to university students from the United States, Canada and Mexico. Teams of 2-10 students are required to design and build a space-type system called a CanSat. Each CanSat is the size of a soda can and must be built according to the specifications released by the competition organizing committee. Participants are involved in the end-to-end life cycle of a complex engineering project, from conceptual design, through integration and test, actual operation of the system, and the conclusion with a post-mission summary and debriefing.

All teams entering the CanSat competition are required to have a faculty adviser. The faculty adviser shall oversee and be responsible for the conduct of the team at all times during the competition and is strongly encouraged to accompany the team to the competition.

Applications are due Oct. 31, 2007.  For more information about the competition and to download the application, visit: http://www.cansatcompetition.com/

Great Worldwide Star Count

Kids and adults are invited to count the stars in the evening sky from Oct. 1-15, 2007, and report their results online. The event, sponsored by Windows to the Universe, is designed to raise awareness about light pollution and encourage learning in astronomy. All the information needed to participate will be available on the Web. At the conclusion of the event, the submitted data will be analyzed and a map will be generated highlighting the results.

For more information, visit: http://www.starcount.org

MAKE: Blog Details DIY Space Payloads

Make: is going to space! Have you ever wanted to go up into space? Well, you don’t have to win a golden ticket, be a millionaire, or an astronaut… you can send your own payload into space!

The video podcast details the creation of a small satellite project utilizing HAM raido, GPS, digital cameras, and weather balloons. View the video here:
http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2007/03/diy_space_make_video_podc.html