A CanSat is a “satellite” the size of a beverage can, developed, built and programmed by teams of students. This mini-satellite is brought to an altitude of several hundred meters by a rocket and then falls to the ground attached to a parachute. The satellite performs measurements and other tasks for which it was designed.

A CanSat serves as a model of a real space mission, as it will pass through essentially the same phases as a real space mission: Planning the mission, designing the satellite, testing the individual components and the overall system, carrying out the mission, processing and evaluating the data, communicating the results. In this way, the CanSat competition offers dedicated and talented students the opportunity to gain their first practical and authentic experience of a space project.