UPES students win global aerospace competition

Team Astral of UPES (University of Petroleum and Energy Studies) , Dehradun, has secured first rank globally at CanSat 2017. CanSat is a prestigious annual design-build-fly competition with space related themes organised by the American Astronautical Society (AAS) and American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). As many as 40 teams from across the world were competing in the finals held at Texas, this year. The competing teams were from Princeton University, University of Manchester, University of Alabama, VIT University and National Aviation Academy.

Team Astral of UPES is a 23-member multi-domain team with students from Aerospace Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Computer Science Engineering, Material Science Engineering, Instrumentation and Control Engineering and Design Studies. The team has been participating in CanSat competition since 2013. This competition is a design-build-fly competition that provides teams from across the globe with an opportunity to experience the design life-cycle of an aerospace system. 

The competition is designed to reflect a typical programme on a small scale and includes all aspects from the preliminary design review to post mission review. The mission and its requirements are planned to reflect various aspects of real world missions including telemetry requirements, communications, and autonomous operations. Each team is scored throughout the competition on real-world deliverables such as schedules, design review presentations, and demonstration flights.  — TNS