The day was bright, the sky was clear and yes, it was Scotland in March! To be precise, it was Strathaven Airfield on 21st March 2012 for the first – ever launch of the Scottish CanSat Competition.
Launching CanSats
Seven teams made it to the Scottish launch and final, and all of them – fantastically supported by Colin, Marta and the team at the airfield – launched their satellite experiments via hand and tube from the microlight (thanks Marta) and safely recovered their CanSats…
Well, when I say safely I sure didn’t say easily. I can’t believe how difficult it was to spot and keep track of the CanSats in the air. Thank goodness we had lots of help from the ground stations and microlight spotter teams.
Teams located the CanSats from ground and air – with lots of help and spotting from microlight by Brian, Colin Marta and Glen – and then recovered them on foot and by car from tree, garden, field and cow pat.
Cross-winds meant that teams had to jump fences, cross fields, climb trees and ask the neighbours “please can I get my CanSat back?”
Not exactly glamorous, but great fun! See all Scottish CanSat Launch pics and link to Strathaven Airfield Facebook page.
BBC Radio Scotland Interview
And to top it all off (not to add any pressure) BBC Radio Scotland’s MacAulay & Co show did a live broadcast of the first Scottish CanSats to be launched. Fred and the team have been supporting and following the competition since the beginning way back in 2011, and it was very exciting for Bearsden Academy and Kings Park Secondary School (nevermind Paul) to be interviewed for the live broadcast at 11:30.
Good luck for the Fistral Scottish CanSat Trophy
All teams received data from their experiments, which means that the competition Final and award of the Fistral Scottish CanSat Trophy at the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh on 28th March, is all to play for. And I’m really glad not to be one of the judges. Good luck teams!
(Thanks again to all the teams and supporterd, in particular Colin, Marta, Brian, Glen, Ewen, Bill, Chris, Gail, Abdul and the MacAulay & Co team)