CANSAT26

CANSAT is a competition hosted in Virginia where competing teams from around the world design and build a miniature flyback satellite over the year. The competition included a Preliminary Design Review (PDR) to shortlist teams in the first semester, a Critical Design Review (CDR) with finalised designs and testing and a final launch in June. to The Manchester Satellite Development Group (MSDG) competed in the 2025/26 competition with paraglider based steering design, and were the only UK-based team to qualify following PDR.

Project Highlights:

• Servo controlled paraglider steering mechanism
• Altitude based release using pressure data
• Ardupilot controller for flight navigation
• Data acquisition using various sensors including air pressure sensor, temperature sensor, air speed sensor, IMU, GNSS module, and a voltage current sensor
• Zigbee wireless radio telemetry streaming to a base station display
• Gimbal cameras to record release and descent