POLICY

Students launched their satellites in search of environmental information

They are the size of a soda can and seek to determine, for example, the presence of microplastics in the air, light pollution or environmental dust pollution. The initiative is part of an international competition promoted by several space agencies around the world.

  • 04/10/2023 • 14:13

Satellites the size of a soda can made by five teams of high school students from different provinces were launched this Thursday from the Teófilo Tabanera Space Center, in Falda del Cañete, Córdoba, to gather information on environmental problems within the framework of the Cansat competition. Argentina. "Our mission is to detect microplastics in the air. The idea arose because in Argentina there are no measurements of how much microplastic there is in the air, as there is in Mexico or England," Santiago Giacolla, a student at the university, told the press after the launch. Professional Technical Education School No. 643 Granaderos de San Lorenzo in the town of Roldán, Santa Fe. Nervous and excited, like the rest of the members of his "Roldán 2" team and all the people present, Santiago now awaits the laboratory analysis of the air sample that the satellite managed to capture using a precise system that opened a gate when It was in the air and he closed it before it fell.