Xanthi pupils plan launch of a micro-satellite
A group of Xanthi pupils are taking the class of robotics to stratospheric highs, as they prepare to launch their own micro-satellite.
Robotics has been the favorite class of thousands of Greeks in the last few years, and has definitely captured the imagination of schoolchidren at the biggest city in Thrace.
Pupils from Xanthi have liaised with parents, teachers and scientists to create a club called “Robospecialists” and to try and create a micro-satellite that they will attempt to see get airborne.
The silver medal the 1st General Lyceum of Xanthi earned at the 2015 World Robot Olympiad in Qatar was the best incentive for the local pupils to engage further in robotics and the group has now entered the CanSat competition of the European Space Agency, being already shortlisted along with nine other teams from Greece for the construction of a micro-satellite.
This will be a satellite “as big as a refreshment can, with a microcomputer inside it, various sensors etc,” according to Thanassis Balafoutis, a researcher at the Dimokritio University of Thrace.
The micro-satellite will be launched in April on a small rocket and execute an integrated procedure. “It will not reach the outer space, but instead rise to about 1,000 meters from the ground. A parachute will then open as the device will emit data on measurements made in the air for the pupils to collect on the ground,” Balafoutis added.
