The ARLISS Project is a collaborative effort between students and faculty at Stanford University Space Systems Development Program and other educational institutions, and high power rocketry enthusiasts in Northern California, to build, launch, test and recover prototype satellites, miniaturized to fit inside a soft drink can (hence "CanSats") in preparation for an Earth orbit or Mars orbit space launch.
ARLISS and the CanSat project challenge innovative students to get hands-on experience in the life-cycle (one year or less) of a space project. Each CanSat team will design and build one or more satellites, and travel to the launch site in Black Rock, Nevada to supervise preparation, launch, telemetry download and safe recovery of their experiments and data.
The ARLISS rocketry group provides launch vehicles, each capable of lofting and safely deploying three CanSats under parachute at an altitude of 12,000' AGL, affording each CanSat a "hang time" in the air of about 15 minutes for experiments, simulating a horizon-to-horizon low orbit pass.
If you have any questions about CanSat and Open Class projects and ARLISS please contact the Prof. Robert Twiggs or any of the participants referred to in this web site.
The ARLISS CanSat program is designed to provide educational experience to students in the design, integration, flight, and data analysis of a space experiment. This program is to prepare students for an exciting, technical challenge that may lead to launching space experiments into low earth orbits and beyond.
Overview
ARLISS CanSat class of payloads for new and returning students. Rockets will carry the CanSats to 10,000 - 12,000 feet and eject these for descent on parachute for space demonstration experiments.
Requirements
The requirements for the CanSats are:
Size: Must be same size as a standard US soda can (Pespi, CocaCola, 7up, etc). Diameter 2.6000 +/- 0.005 inch
Weight: Weight of the CanSat may not exceed a full can of regular cola ~ 350g.
Length: Must not exceed the length of a standard cola can except for communication antennas.
Outer Shape (before launch): The outer shape and marking must be a cola can. it is encouraged that a real cola can be used as the outer covering. The objective here is that this is a satellite built in a cola can and in the future may lead to sponsorship by a cola distributor.
Outer Shape (after deployment): The CanSat my have deployable antennas, experiments or other devices after it leaves the payload carrier.
Parachute: For a standard descent, a 36-inch diameter may be used. A 6-inch dump hole can be cut into the chute to adjust descent rate and time.
Backup CanSat Experiment
Each group is encouraged to bring at least one extra CanSat experiment to launch in case the primary CanSat is not working at launch time or there is an extra launch opportunity available during the launch days.
CanSats that do not meet the Requirements
CanSats that arrive at the launch site that do not confirm to the requirements outlined above will not be allowed to launch. If there is a desire to build CanSats that can not meet these requirements, consider participating in the Open Class competition that will allow experiments up to 5.770-inches in diameter, 10-inches deep and a weight of up to 4 pounds.
Open Class Flight Experiments
The Open Class Flight Experiments class is to challenge those students that have interests and skills that go beyond the limitations of the CanSat payloads. There students may fly experiments that could demonstrate simulated Mars activities.
There are two type of launch vehicles for ARLISS. There are the ARLISS-M and the ARLISS-K.
Black rock info goes here