After weeks of spitballing and library installations the team is finally ready to begin construction on the CanSat. A few things have changed from our initial specification for the project, mainly concerning the secondary mission. We have decided to focus mainly on a targeted landing system, where the CanSat will use GPS to locate itself, and will then move itself in relation to a defined landing spot using wings/parafoil (TBD). As well as this, an accelerometer will be included to calculate how long it takes for the satellite to reach its maximum velocity/average force acted upon CanSat by gravity. We will also try and include solar panels within the project to power some components. This however is just an initial proposition for the mission, and may vary until we confirm it later next week.
We'll be spending the majority of our time now completing the primary mission to get it out of the way, giving us more time to spend on our secondary mission. To try and gain publicity for our team, we are promoting the blog within the school, and plan on giving talks to physics/computing enthusiasts in lower years in the school.
Over the next 4 weeks the first progress report will be compiled, which will include various sketches and designs of our CanSat shell and electronics, as well as information on how we plan to tackle our secondary mission. The progress indicators will be updated on the blog regularly, and the report will be available on October 31st.