IIIT-H bags third place at CanSat 2011

The International Institute of Information Technology - Hyderabad (IIIT-H) bagged third place at the finals of CanSat 2011, an  international aerospace competition held at Abilene, Texas, United States of America last week. This was the only team from India to participate at this event organised by American Astronautical Society, with support from NASA. IIIT-H’s team, Mission Gaganyaan, was the only team from India to qualify for the World Finals this year. The CanSat 2011 required teams to design, fabricate and launch into the lower space an autonomous micro-satellite carrying a large raw egg of a hen intact for the entire duration of the flight --- from launch to the landing. A total of 20 teams from leading universities around the world participated. The team worked diligently for the last six months on various aspects of the design, fabrication, and testing of the micro-satellite - IIIT-H’s CanSat - to compete with some of the best teams from around the world. The team worked on all components in the design of the system - sensors, communications and their integration, body design and descent mechanisms, and the ground control station, that made them bag the third place this time.