By Hayden Lo - Outreach Lead of CanSat Noctua

When I first wrote a Hoot Article regarding the CanSat team, it was the 8th of November 2024, and CanSat Noctua had just began takings its first steps. Since then, Cansat Noctua has transformed into not just a team, but an idea.  I do not go by a week without someone mentioning the team to me, in one form or the other,  and it is truly amazing to see how far we have come and how much we have transformed. Looking back, CanSat Noctua had just began to work on the Preliminary Design Review, their first of three reports, talking about the ideas that we had planned. When we were writing that report, it almost felt like building a CanSat, a small replica of a satellite, was just a figure of our imagination, with the research taking us down multiple loopholes. We made decisions about money and parts, without the money and parts actually being in our hands. As well as this, I had just begun the Outreach Program, another key part of the competition. At the time, I saw Outreach as just creating all the social media accounts I possibly could, in the odd chance we could get a follower or two, but the main thing was to make sure we posted as much as we could, when we could. Now, I see Outreach as something special. Something away from the Physics and Maths, but about connection and the public. We are no longer a social media account with 12 followers. Instead, we now have an account with over 580 followers, with people from all over the world tagging along.  Who would know a group of 6 Year 10’s could spread their cause internationally? And at this rate, we are well on our way to hit 1000 followers before the end of the competition. Outreach isn’t only about social media though. It is also about informing others. Since November, we have hosted an assembly to Year 7, 8, 10 and 11, telling them about what CanSat is and how they could get involved. I am sure many of you who manage to divert yourself to this article will also likely have attended our assemblies. Although I would love to go on about our success in Outreach (my successes), success was also present everywhere else in this competition, all due to the hard-working teammates I have. When we received our PDR results in what seems like centuries ago, we received 24/26. That’s 92%. For a bunch of students who just signed up to a Satchel One post set by Mr. Turner in the last week of Year 9 Summer Term, I would say that’s not a bad score. But we wanted more. So, meetings continued every Wednesday in Rm. 23. Test were made. Parts were bought. We have spent over £300 on a Coke Can Satellite. £300. And then the CDR Deadline came creeping up.  The 2nd report we had been dreading. The ticket to the National Finals or the Participation Certificate. All were on the hands of the CDR. Now, I would absolutely love to lie and say the CDR was a walk in the park, but that wouldn’t accurately represent the dedication each member put into that report. Our report was 40 pages long. 16,732 words. It was far from easy . Yet we pushed on. And that led us to get the score we all deserved. 25/25 in the CDR. We had got a spot in the National Finals.

If you read the entirety of this article, thank you. We appreciate your interest in CanSat Noctua, and we could not encourage you more to follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Reddit and YouTube to keep up to date on our work. These next few weeks are going to be hectic, and I am sure that the posts are only going to get even more interesting. If you do not have social media, please check out our website: cansatnoctua.wordpress.com. Finally, I would like to sign off by saying a big Thank You to Mr. Turner for all his work to get us here and I’m sure the headaches are not even close from being over. I hope to be writing my last article to the Hoot talking about our victory, but for now, it’s all hands-on-deck to get CanSat flying (both literally and figuratively).

Ascend. Innovate. Noctua.