Satellite competition winners witnessed balloon launch

    4 October 2023

    During the Spacecraft Technology and Design course, students competed to see who could build the smartest mini-satellite. The winning team, five Engineering Physics students, was awarded a trip to Esrange in Kiruna to witness the launch of a balloon experiment.

    The winning team consisted of Gustav Oskarsson, Malin Gidlund, Jacob Lindström and Henrik Wahlström, here with teacher Shahab Fatemi (centre).

    Photo: Shahab Fatemi

    The course on satellite technology brought together 21 students from the MSc in Engineering Physics programme. The satellites they built over six weeks, called CanSats, were no bigger than soda cans. The competition was to fly the satellites with drones and the winners were Malin Gidlund, Carlota Carrillo Gómez, Gustav Oskarsson, Jacob Lindström and Henrik Wahlström from team C.A.N.T.

    Associate professor Shahab Fatemi from the Department of Physics took the winners to Kiruna, where they visited the Institute of Space Physics, attended the launch of the BEXUS balloon experiment at Esrange, saw the EISCAT radar and visited the ice hotel. The visit was sponsored by the Arctic Centre (ARCUM) vid Umeå University genom Arctic Centre's Strategic Funds.

    Read more about the Spacecraft Technology course
    Watch a tv report about the students' competition

    The students took part in a balloon launch at Esrange in Kiruna.

    Photo: Shahab Fatemi

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