The call for proposals for the 2012 European CanSat Competition is now open! The deadline for proposals is 16 October 2011 at 24:00 CEST. Interested students or teachers should complete and submit the proposal form in accordance with the competition guidelines.

This competition is organised by the European Space Agency (ESA), in collaboration with the Norwegian Centre for Space-related Education (NAROM).

A teachers’ introductory workshop will take place at ESA-ESTEC on 2-3 December 2011, to ensure that all teams have the necessary equipment and expertise to proceed with their CanSat project.

Between December 2011 and March 2012, the selected teams will carry out technical work on their CanSats, including design, development and testing activities. Guidelines, templates and expert advice will be available throughout this phase.

The highlight will be the competition launch campaign to be held at Andøya Rocket Range in Norway, where each CanSat will be launched in a rocket up to an altitude of 1 km. The CanSats will then separate from the rocket, conduct their missions, and land safely on the ground to be recovered by the teams.

The competition winners will be chosen based on the team’s performance throughout the project, as well as the final flight operations and results.