By Trend
Azerbaijan is among those few countries in the world with space
programs, rector of the Azerbaijan National Aviation Academy,
chairman of the Council for Space Affairs, academician Arif
Pashayev said at the event organized on the occasion of awarding
the winners of the CanSat Azerbaijan 2018 competition.
Greeting the guests, Pashayev briefly talked about the
competition, stressing that the idea belongs to the Azerbaijani
Ministry of Education and Azercosmos OJSC.
"About 200 students from 11 universities of the country took
part in the CanSat Azerbaijan competition,” he said. “Sixty-six of
200 students became finalists. There are no losers in this
competition as the participants got a lot of experience as
designers and programmers. I wish all finalists new victories."
“The jury, headed by Professor of the US University of Maryland,
prominent scientist in the field of space research, academician
Roald Sagdeev has a great merit in holding the competition,”
Pashayev added.
During the event, Sagdeev also offered to hold CanSat Azerbaijan
competition among the Azerbaijani secondary schools.
“It will be possible to attract schoolchildren to this
competition, which will be another step taken by the Azerbaijani
Ministry of Education together with Azercosmos,” he said.
"Several years ago, teams from the Azerbaijan National Aviation
Academy participated in the US CanSat competition,” Sagdeev said.
“The students from ADA University also took part in this
competition. The teams from Baku participated quite well.
Afterwards, at the initiative of Azercosmos, the idea was
implemented in Azerbaijan."
He stressed that 61 years ago the first satellite was launched,
and even then the designers, project managers knew that it was good
to attract more people, young people, and in particular, radio
amateurs for monitoring the first satellite.
“Radio amateurs worldwide could receive signals from this
satellite,” Sagdeev added. “This tradition continues. As the space
program was developing, many enthusiasts - rocket engineers have
emerged. NASA specialists had the idea to organize special
competitions among students in the US, and some time later,
students from other countries were invited to participate. The
competition was named CanSat."
“The task of the competition participants was to fit the
satellite into a small jar, with all its functioning electronics,
with the ability to conduct research (temperature and pressure
measurement, image taking, etc.),” he said.
"The competition gained great popularity, and some time later,
on the initiative of Moscow State University, the competition was
organized in Russia, which still gathers a big number of young
people,” Sagdeev added. “Eleven universities participated in the
CanSat Azerbaijan competition. The teams had to first think over
the design of the microsatellite, which then had to be created in
the form of a mockup and to be demonstrated to the jury.”
“It was also the design with which they were to participate in
the competition,” he said. “According to the results of the first
stage, 10 teams were invited. Microsatellites were launched in
September. Despite weather was windy and there were many obstacles,
the competition was successful. The participants fulfilled all the
conditions of the competition. There are no losers in this
competition. This creative competition will become a tradition and
the number of participants will be increasing."
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