Students from Alton College travelled to York to take part in the UK CanSat Competition final.

The contest provided the students with a chance to have practical experience of working on a small-scale space project.

They had to design and build a simulation of a real satellite within the volume and shape of a soft drink can.

The challenge for the students was to fit all the major subsystems found in a satellite, such as power, sensors and a communication system, into this minimal volume.

Alton College’s CanSat was launched on a small rocket and returned to Earth using a parachute designed by the students.

Their primary mission was to measure air pressure and air temperature during the CanSat's descent, with data being transmitted to their ground station, and they also had to design a secondary mission of their choosing to fit the CanSat’s capabilities. The winners will be announced soon.

Alton College’s progress in the competition was an early success for its Space and Satellite Hub which opened last October.

A £500,000 grant from the North Hampshire and Surrey Local Skills Improvement Fund enabled it to renovate its facilities to provide a unique Space Technologies Programme.

Academically this comprises A-level mathematics and physics plus the extended certificate in engineering, but the programme also has links with the UK space industry.

There is a week-long visit to the Surrey Space Centre to study a level four programme in space engineering, introducing students to mission design, orbits, launching and tracking.

Recently Alton College hosted the National Space Academy for a masterclass on space technology for students on the programme, which included the chance to handle rocks from the Moon and Mars, and to design, build and launch miniature rockets.

One student said: “I really hope we can do something similar again one day, I absolutely loved the experience.”