Later this year the team will represent Ireland on the European stage at the ESA event.

The Arc, which is a team of students from Mercy Mounthawk secondary school in Tralee, Kerry, has been named the Irish winner of the national final of the European Space Agency (ESA) CanSat competition.

The flagship European Space Agency initiative challenges secondary school students to design, build and launch a working mini-satellite that fits inside a drinks can. Students at the two-day event in Laois launched their CanSats by rocket, captured and transmitted real-time data on descent and presented their results to a panel of expert judges.

The students will now go on to represent Ireland on the European stage at the ESA event later in the year. 

Commenting on the win, Culann Dowling, the captain of The Arc, said: “The best thing about taking part in CanSat is the amount we’ve learned and our teamwork, which has strengthened our friendships.  It’s been such a great experience overall and the team and I want to thank our teachers Mr Hayes and Ms Brosnahan for their support and guidance throughout the competition.”

Padraig McDermott, a member of the Irish team that won the European CanSat competition in 2018, was in attendance as a guest speaker. He said: “Being here takes me back to the excitement of 2018 and to the impact that being part of CanSat has had on my professional life. 

“After graduation, I successfully applied for an EIRSAT internship at UCD, and I know that taking part in CanSat played a big role in my being accepted. The whole experience of taking part, the teamwork, the research, the practical build and the presenting, is instrumental in preparing the scientists of the future for a career in space.”

CanSat is widely recognised as one of the most advanced STEM competitions for secondary school students, as it offers hands-on experience in electronics and programming, data analysis, engineering design and scientific communication.

Students approach the work like a real mission, where they team up, plan, build, test and present their findings to experts – an experience that can provide genuine insight into pathways in the engineering and space sectors.

In other Irish space news, in late April, Galway space-tech Mbryonics announced plans to build a second manufacturing facility in Shannon to keep up with a growing demand for its services. The new facility, which is called Photon-2, will produce thousands of optical terminals by 2027.

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