EDUCAN-Mini Educational CanSat Kit!
If you’re a STEAM educator or just someone who is interested in miniature satellites, then you’ve got to check out the EDUCAN-Mini satellite kit! It comes with all the necessary parts (except the lithium battery) to build a replica CanSat miniature satellite, gather data, and send it to a “base station” over wifi.
While it’s not space-rated, the kit goes over all the parts necessary for building real satellites and shows students what designing amateur space equipment is like. It contains a full power subsystem, a central computer, a payload, and a 3D-printed enclosure. This kit is based on an Arduino and so is fully compatible with the Arduino IDE and libraries, making it easy to add additional sensors or actuators.
Common modifications students can do include adding solar panels to charge the battery; adding a payload release mechanism using servo motors; calculating the orientation of the satellite based on both sensor input and camera input; rotating the solar panels to face the correct direction; and build a “launch vehicle” that can house the satellite and communicate with it until the satellite is released.
This kit is aimed at teenagers, but educators can apply the same curriculum and scale it for younger or older students as they see fit. Get your students into space technology with this neat little kit!