CanSat 2025
CanSat was organized for the fourth time in Finland and this time a record 11 teams participated. There were new schools and old veterans. Kokkola Finnish High School participated for the fourth time. In CanSat, teams have to build a satellite the size of a can. In this project, students learn coding, electronics, performance, media and working on a project.
Before this weekend, the students had easily spent two hundred hours of their own time on the CanSat project. This weekend was the culmination of the students' hard work. The CanSat competition was organized by ESERO Finland, the Heureka Science Center, and the Finnish Space Research Society (SATS) acted as the launch operator.
The event program was as follows:
Wednesday was a travel day.
We drove (SATS) from Helsinki to Vaasa and stayed at the hotel. We were still refining the program for the coming days. We had a meeting in the hotel sauna every day. It was a good place to plan. We were a team of 9 people helping with the CanSat competition. The students, teachers and everyone called us “Rocket Boys”.
Thursday was the finishing day.
We did technical checks on the CanSat teams’ satellites. The satellites must withstand an initial acceleration of over 20 G and must remain intact even when they parachute to the ground, and the data connection must not be interrupted. The teams received the rockets we made, which were then decorated in different ways. We walked around and watched the teams’ activities. Thursday was a pretty relaxed day for us. On Thursday we also prepared our own rockets, of which we had 15.
Friday was the first launch day.
We went to Söderfjärden in the morning to prepare for the launches. We installed 3 launch towers, tested the launch systems and prepared the packing room. We were ready to receive the first teams. The satellites were packed into the rockets in Meteoria, after which the teams walked 500 meters to the launch site. At the launch site, the rocket motor was installed in the rocket, the rocket was pushed into the launch tower and lastly the igniter was placed inside the rocket motor. One of the teams launched the rocket into the sky.
On Friday, the wind was quite strong, 10 meters per second and in gusts up to 16 meters per second. The clouds were quite low. This caused challenges and after 5 launches, the operation had to be stopped. In these conditions, one satellite drifted 3 kilometers from the launch site and one of the rockets drifted even further and was never found again. Our main engine was a Class I engine (407I345-WT). The CanSat satellites reached an altitude of 900–1100 meters in about 13 seconds. In windy weather, we used a few smaller engines, which meant the rockets did not reach an altitude of 1 kilometer.
Saturday was the second launch day.
The conditions were now a little better and we launched 8 CanSats. We did a total of 13 CanSat launches, because two CanSats were relaunched. Our main task was to launch all the CanSats into the sky and because it went well, we also launched 7 of our own rockets. I myself launched my Katana rocket to an altitude of 460 meters and at its best its speed was 340 kilometers per hour. I had electronics with me in the Katana and therefore I don't know how high it went. The result was according to the simulation program called Openrocket. In the evening there was a gala dinner in a restaurant in Vaasa.
Sunday was our launch day.
Because the conditions had been challenging, we had not launched our own rockets. While the teams were presenting their results to the judges and other teams, we continued our own launches. It is a rare treat for us to launch rockets to an altitude of over a kilometer. The weather was now quite good. I made a second launch with my Katana, and now it flew to an altitude of 1300 meters and had a top speed of 800 kilometers per hour. I now had a 1016J360-15A Skidmark as my engine, which was a really great engine. We made a total of 10 more launches on Sunday. A few rockets tickled the altitude of 2,000 meters and 3 rockets exceeded the speed of sound. I will write a separate article about these own launches later.
After that, it was time to pack everything up and return home. And I will probably build one or two new rockets to accompany the Katana this year. What if next year you yourself reached the speed of sound or an altitude of two kilometers?
The CatSat 2025 teams were:
Team Alas, Kokkolan Suomenkielinen lukio: Youtube, Instagram
Kvanttikala, Tallinnan suomalainen koulu: instagram, facebook
LySky, Hämeenlinnan lyceon lukio: instagram
Lumat, Lahden yhteyskoulu: instagram,
LärCan, Gymnasien Lärkan: website, instagram
CurbAllSat, Vasa Övsningsskolas Gymnasium: website, instagram
OtaSat, Otaniemen lukio: instagram, TT: Ota Sat
WeCan, Tamperen klassillinen lukio: instagram, linkedin, website
Kastelliitti, Kastellin likio, Oulu: instagram
Ekotomtarna: Järvenpään lukio: instagram
CanCat 2.0, Pyhäjoen lukio: instagram, facebook
As before, Jan Holmgärd, ESERO Finland, was involved, wrote the accompanying article and took some great photos. All photos in the article are by Jan.
CanSat 2025, Vaasa
https://edugalaxen.com/2025/03/28/cansat-competition-2025-in-vasa-finland/
Pictures
https://www.flickr.com/photos/192360479@N08/albums/72177720324717048/
The Finnish Space Research Society's CanSat 2025 team was:
Matti Lepomäki, rocket engines and rocket launch
Mika Järvenpää, rocket engines and rocket launch
Timo Toivanen, security officer
Mika Jalava, field expert and rocket retrieval
Antti Niskanen, field expert and rocket retrieval
Matti Manninen, field expert and drone filming
Vesa Heilala, field expert and satellite packaging on rockets
Joni Virtanen, field expert and satellite packaging on rockets
Sampo Juustila, field expert and satellite packaging on rockets
Finnish Space Research Society:
https://www.sats-saff.fi/sats-toiminta/
