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The 2nd Canadian Satellite Design Challenge (CSDC) has a winner and it’s the University of Victoria. The University of Manitoba won the inaugural UrtheCast Educational Outreach Award.
The competition was won last year by Concordia University in Montreal.
This year six teams made it to the final stage of the competition which was vibration tests conducted at the Canadian Space Agency’s David Florida Laboratory in Ottawa. The teams were: The University of Victoria, the University of British Columbia, the University of Manitoba, the University of Waterloo, Concordia University, and a combined team from the École Polytechnique de Montréal and the University of Bologna.
According to Larry Reeves founder of the competition “four of the teams were able to subject their satellites to a vibration test which simulated the vibration experienced during launch. Following the testing, the teams performed functional tests on their satellites to demonstrate that they had survived the vibration.
One team detected a component failure inside their spacecraft, and another had cracks on the structure, but their payload experiments were still able to receive commands and function.”
University of Manitoba (“UMSATS “) team leader Greg Linton receives the UrtheCast Educational Outreach Award from CSDCMS President Larry Reeves.
The CSDC Management Society (CSDCMS), the not-for-profit organization which offers and manages the competition thanked its sponsors as without them Canadian students wouldn’t have this kind of opportunity.
They include:
- The Boeing Company
- MDA Corp.
- The Canadian Space Agency and the David Florida Laboratory
- UrtheCast Corp.
- Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC)
- Mitacs
- Magellan Aerospace Corp.
The judges this year included Patrick Gavigan of Defence Research & Development Canada, and Adam Latour of Microsat Systems Canada Inc..
After the winners announced at the finale dinner attendees were treated to a presentation about Canadian space history and achievements by Harry Kowalik, an engineer who worked on the Alouette programme.
