Moon Rover - Building a solar-powered rover

In this set of two activities, pupils identify and compare types of renewable sources of energy, before being encouraged to identify solar energy as one of the best options for powering a lunar rover. Pupils will learn about the environmental conditions on the moon and learn more about the purpose of lunar rovers...

Robotic Arm - Become a space engineer for a day

In this set of two activities pupils will learn about the different functions of bones and muscles, such as the humerus, ulna and metacarpals and understand how the human arm works. They are given the opportunity to use their own ideas to build and test a model robotic arm, with a full understanding of why robotic...

Astro Crops - Growing plants for future space missions

In this Space mission themed activity, pupils will observe how seeds grow into mature plants by tracking the development of three unknown seeds. Pupils will also learn to make scientific observations and record data to track the growth of these plants over time before being given the opportunity to interpret and...

Design your parachute - A guide to landing your CanSat safely

This resource gives students a brief overview of the different options available when building a parachute for the CanSat Competition. Students will learn about the underlying physics of parachutes and their design and how to control the speed of their CanSat. 

Learning objectives:

• Understand...

Communicating with Radio - Ground control to major CanSat

To understand how everyday devices like mobile phones, routers and satellites work, we need to understand what radio waves are and how we can transmit information with them. Radio communication is one of the key elements in our CanSat. All the data needed for our scientific experiment will be sent from the CanSat...

Getting Started with CanSat - A Guide to the Primary Mission

This module outlines the main features of the Primary Mission for the CanSat Competition. In the Primary Mission, teams must measure the temperature and pressure and send the information to their ground station. Students will learn about the differences between the sensors they can use and about the challenges...

Meet Arduino! - Introduction to Arduino Computing using C++

This guide for students allows them to explore technology used in space through the Arduino tool. They can build circuits to blink an LED and to measure temperature, pressure and altitude. The basics of programming in C++ will be introduced using the Arduino IDE (Integrated Development Environment) software. This...

The Mathematics of Satellite Design - Origami

Origami with squares

Solar panels are an important part of satellite design. There are design constraints on the distance a panel can be from the core of the satellite. In order to increase the area of the panels, satellites of the future may well deploy panels other than rectangular ones....

The Mathematics of Satellite Design - Coolant tank, fuel tank and engine design

All the resources listed here are aimed at the age group 14 to 16, except for the "Space for Engine" resource. 

Coolant tank design

Making efficient use of physical space and of materials is a central theme of many engineering problems. In this challenge students...