2013 CanSat Competition:

CanSat is an annual student design-build-launch competition organized by The American Astronautical Society (AAS) and American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) in Texas, U.S. The requirements and challenges change from year to year, however the fundamental objective is to build a model satellite, referred to as "CanSat".

The CanSat is placed in a rocket and launched to an altitude of nearly 700m, after which it goes through multiple autonomous descend stages. It contains a payload which must survive the landing, as well as sensors and electronic hardware which take readings of multiple parameters and trigger autonomous actions such as deployment of aero-braking mechanisms. 

Challenges involve restrictions in dimension, weight, descend rates, and requirements such as recording altitude, temperature, pressure, and impact force. All the data from sensors and GPS must be sent in real time to the ground station where they are processed and displayed through a Graphical User Interface developed by the team. 

For more information, please visit the CanSat Competition Website.