CanSat Team

SNOES Project

(Self Navigating Optics Emplacement System)

The CanSat team was founded in December of 2006 to compete in the Annual CanSat competition in Amarillo, Texas; and it is now halfway into its second year. 2008 will see a significant improvement in functionality over the initial prototype, and the team has set their sights not only on taking first place, but on leaving the competition far behind with a design that will not rely on complexity, but will build on a solid base of testing and thorough fore planning.

The most fundamental goal of the SNOES project is to build a vehicle capable of a very challenging mission profile that begins with a launch to 3000 feet in the payload section of a rocket. Upon reaching apogee the CanSat will be ejected from the launch vehicle where it will deploy its main parafoil parachute. The vehicle will descend to the ground in a controlled manner gliding towards a landing site that is wirelessly transmitted by the ground station. Upon reaching the landing site the CanSat will detach from its parachute so that it will not obstruct the cameras’ fields of view, and then it will tumble to a stop across the ground. After a short amount of time to allow the vehicle to come to rest, the landing mechanism will be deployed bringing the CanSat into an upright position; from this point on the vehicle will only power mission critical components and will remain in the field providing a full 360° view of the environment around it.