The Regional Director for Science and Technology considered that CanSat Açores 2016 was "a success for the commitment that students demonstrated in the work they carried out and the results achieved as well as for the organisation of the event."
 
Nelson Simões spoke at the end of the regional competition that took place on Santa Maria with three teams in competition and two guest teams, including the team of ENTA - School of New Technologies of the Azores (Ponta Delgada) that won the this year's edition of national CanSat.
 
The Regional Director mentioned that "this competition carries a very important education component to the students," emphasising the relevance of the "informative component" for the Azores in terms of aerospace technologies.
 
"It is essential to disseminate the potential of aerospace [for the region] and to say that there is still potential to be developed in the Azores," said the government official.
 
Three Azorean teams that were not qualified for the national competition participated in Regional CanSat. The ProCAST team from the Association for Training and Development of the Azores (APRODAZ) in Ponta Delgada was the winner of this edition.
 
CanSat Açores 2016 was organised by the Regional Secretariat for the Sea, Science and Technology, through the Regional Directorate for Science and Technology, in collaboration with the Air Space Centre of Torres Vedras Air Club, ESERO Portugal / Living Science - National Agency for Scientific Culture and Technology and the Santana Astronomical Observatory. The event was held under the Santa Maria Week Space.
 
Field trips to the ESA and RAEGE space stations, planetarium sessions and solar and night observations, lectures on topics related space and the "Space Girls Space Women" exhibition were some of the activities that marked this week.
 
The CanSat project is an initiative of the European Space Agency (ESA) directed to secondary school students, whose main purpose is the construction, configuration and release of a miniaturised satellite (CanSat).
 
CanSat satellites are launched from an aircraft so that during the descent it is possible to carry out a scientific experiment to capture signals from sensors (telemetry) and guarantee a safe landing.