American Astronautical Society (AAS) held a great 2020 CanSat competition. The competition was about student design-build-launch competition for space-related topics. Gadjah Mada Aerospace Team (GMAT) has a great satisfaction to win 2nd place in this competition.
There were hundreds of participants from various countries of the world who joined this competition. Some of them are from the United States, Mexico, Britain, India, Turkey, Poland, Brazil, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Thailand, Indonesia, Canada, Costa Rica, and Azerbaijan.
GMAT consisting of Kenrick Tjandra, Indra Budi Setyawan, Muhammad Dyffa, Mario Jaya, Wildan Purnomo, Mahatma Wisesa, Nico Renaldo, Luqman Alhelmy, Muhammad Nur Ilmi, and Nafisah Hasya, achieved the 2nd place after competing in making rocket cargo spins with missions Delta Wing Glider. The first champion of this competition was the team from the United States and the third position was from the Mexico team.
“So, in this competition, each team must be able to make a rocket cargo vehicle with the Delta Wing Glider mission. The vehicle is designed to send atmospheric data and conduct a series of separations at a certain height,” said Kenrick Tjandra on Thursday (6/18).
GMAT guided by Catur Atmaji, S.Si., M.Cs., and Dr. I Made Miasa, S.T., M.Sc., successfully won the second world title after going through a series of meticulous selection since September 2019.
Kenrick explained that selection begins with the registration stage then preliminary design review and ends with the critical design review stage. The assessment was conducted by a jury from the US Naval Research Laboratory.
“There are hundreds of participants from all over the world at the registration stage, but there would be 40 finalists only to come at the final stage,” he explained.
This achievement can not be separated from the preparation of the team carried out since 2019. This cross-faculty team began physical research and development of the vehicle since 2019. There were several stages to conduct the development of the vehicle such as design, material selection, and manufacturing. Then there was also an examination on the feasibility number and functional tests of the prototype vehicle before the functional vehicle completes the mission well. Besides, it also supports the guidance of supervisors, faculties, and universities.
“I am proud of being able to grant achievements for UGM and Indonesia as well,” he said.
The 2020 competition previously would initially be held in Virginia, United States. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the organization finally decided to hold the competition online. Likewise, the announcement of the winners was made virtually on June 16, 2020.
Author: Ika
Translator: Natasa A