The Regional Secretary for the Sea, Science and Technology welcomed the choice of Santa Maria Island as the host of the CanSat 2018 competition final, an event promoted by the European Space Agency (ESA).
"The Azores had already demonstrated the capacity and motivation to host a European competition," Gui Menezes said, stressing the importance of this initiative to "stimulate the interest of young people in space-related themes and encourage their vocation to this area."
The Regional Secretary defended the "importance" of promoting scientific and technological dissemination and the experimental teaching of science "in the education of young people," highlighting the fact that "several Azorean teams have stood out in this type of competition."
The European CanSat 2018 final runs from June 28 to July 1. It is organised by the Government of the Azores, through the Regional Secretariat for the Sea, Science and Technology, in partnership with the School of New Technologies of the Azores (ENTA); its team won the national competition last year.
Directed to students attending secondary and vocational training schools, the initiative comprises the construction, setting and launch of a minisatellite in the size of a soda can.
The European final will feature teams from Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Poland, Romania, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom, as well as a Nordic team (joint participation of Finland, Sweden and Norway) and a team from Hungary, directly selected by ESA. The event is expected to involve about one hundred and fifty people.
The national competition final will also take place on the island of Santa Maria between April 26 and 29. The Azorean team from Aprodaz Vocational Training School is among the national finalists.
CanSat is one of ESA's initiatives that aims to boost young people's skills in STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).
Each team, which may have up to six members aged between 14 to 19, will launch and operate its microsatellite and analyse the data collected; the latter will be presented to a jury that will award the first, second and third prizes.
In 2015, the Azores held, for the first time, a regional edition of this competition. Last year, the island of Santa Maria hosted the national competition final.