By: Franyi Sarmiento, Ph.D., Inspenet, August 23, 2022
As part of a call launched by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation of the Nation, under the name “CanSat Argentina”, a group of students from Secondary School No. 40 of Mar del Plata will build a satellite prototype (atmospheric probe) for the control of oil spills, after having qualified for the construction, monitoring and validation stage of the call. The group from Mar del Plata was selected among 25 projects, from an initial participation of more than 800 teams from all over the country.
The initiative was launched by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation together with the National Commission of Space Activities (Conae) with the aim of bringing science and technology closer to high school students. CanSat is an international initiative involving various space agencies around the world, such as NASA and ESA.
Specifically, students will build a “payload” the size of a soda can and then launch it on a rocket to an altitude of one kilometer. Under the name “ReneSat”, the Mar del Plata team with its “Larus” mission was selected along with 25 other projects for the construction of the satellite. In the first instance, more than 800 teams were presented with the participation of 4 thousand students from secondary schools in Argentina.
The prototype – designed by Morena Gonzalez, Tomás Gómez, Dora Feliz, Mirko Romero and Ian Heffling, and Physics teacher and coordinator, Darío Iovacchini, from Secondary School No. 40, aims to take pictures of the sea to identify possible oil spills. In the event that the “Larus” mission and the team move on to the next stage of the competition, the satellite built in Mar del Plata will be launched at an altitude of about 500 meters by an experimental rocket provided by Conae. The launch will take place from the Teófilo Tabanera Space Center, located 30 kilometers southwest of the city of Córdoba.
This material from quedigital.com.ar was edited for clarity, style and length.
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