CanSat Descent Control System Design and Implementation Muhterem Özgür KIZILKAYA 3 rd Air Force Maintenance Center Ministry Of National Defense Ankara/TURKEY kizilkaya76@gmail.com Abdullah Ersan OöUZ Turkish Air Force Academy Electronics Eng. Dep. Istanbul/TURKEY aeoguz@hho.edu.tr Süleyman SOYER Turkish Air Force Academy Aeronautics and Astronautics Eng. Dep. Istanbul/TURKEY ssoyer@hho.edu.tr Abstract—The aim of this study is to design a descent control system for a CanSat that simulates a sensor payload travelling through a Martian atmosphere and sampling the atmospheric composition during flight. CanSat is a first step in space studies that gives low cost opportunity to test the space program design. The system is developed under the rules of International CanSat Competition 2016, which aims to simulate the Mars glider project of NASA. A novel descent control system approach was designed and implemented with cadets according to the requirements of the competition. Keywords; CanSat, Descent Control, Mars Glider I. INTRODUCTION The educational demand for spacecraft engineering yielded to affordable solution, CanSat. Can Sat is the first step towards complicated satellite design roadmap especially for undergraduate students [1-4]. CanSat competition scenarios are organized in harmony with the current space program. The main theme of International CanSat Competition 2016 was Mars Glider. The satellite mission to Mars was assumed to start via rocket from the world or a space shuttle. A science vehicle in a container was separated from rocket in the Martian atmosphere. The container releases the science vehicle in the atmosphere at the predetermined height. The science vehicle must glide to the surface safely and collect valuable sensor data and transfer it to ground station till landing as depicted in Fig.1. This scenario is similar to the Prandtl program of NASA, which aims to reduce the drag on the wings of the aircraft [5]. Fig.1. System Concept of Operation The scenario of the competition can be divided to sub missions as stated below:  To safely send the payload to the atmosphere by rocket from the ground,  To ensure the deployment of the Glider from the container,  To safely unfold the Glider at an altitude of 400m,  To collect and send the telemetry data in real time to the ground station,  To provide a safe descent for Glider and Container. Developed CanSat was composed of electronic and aeronautic parts. The descent control system is a sub part of aeronautic design. The descent control system involves two parts, parachute and glider system. The science vehicle with container is the payload that is to descent from 600m to 400m with parachute with -10m/s velocity. After that sequence, science vehicle will depart from container and will glide till ground safely at 120 s, which is approximately -3.3m/s velocity to ground in average in a circular pattern of no more than 1000m of diameter. Mean times the container will descent with the parachute separately. The scenario of descent is presented in Fig.2. Fig.2. Illustration of Descent Trajectory of CanSat The success of descent control system was a key for the overall mission. Descent control system had to be simple and 241