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		Contact: Ronald Takata, Ph.D. HSGC Associate Director Honolulu Community College Chemistry 5-208A 874 Dillingham Blvd. Honolulu, Hawaii 96817 808-845-9494 (voice) 808-845-9173 (fax)
		The activities at Honolulu Community College currently center on the NASA-sponsored CanSat program. This program involves students in the design, construction, and launching of a satellite-mimic, that fits in a soda can. The instrument package must acquire atmospheric data and transmit it back to a ground station while parachuting back to the ground. Headed by Student CanSat Coordinator, Robert Allen, and Faculty Mentor, Dr. Vern Takebayashi, the 2004-2005 CanSat team successfully built and tested a CanSat device, which it "launched" at an aerospace event on campus. The CanSat team then participated in a launch with Windward Community College at the UH Manoa campus as part of the UH Undergraduate Symposium in May, 2005. Two CanSat devices, including the one constructed by HCC, were deployed successfully by weather balloons. In July, 2005 the HCC CanSat team sent two students, Robert Allen and Blake Inouye, to the National CanSat Competition, held at Blackrock, CA. Although the team was not officially entered, it was the most successful CanSat launched. The work of the HCC CanSat team continues and the students have already spent months of planning and evaluation, and are engaged in hardware assembly and testing. The HCC team not only developed the CanSat device, but also the technology that allows their instrument to navigate to a target on the desert floor. The students attained their goal of participating in the 2006 ARLISS (A Rocket Launch for International Student Satellites) competition in September in Nevada. Read more about the project in Dr. Ron Takata's article "Mission accomplished for rocket team" that appeared in the Honolulu Advertiser on November 2, 2006. CanSat teammates have enthusiastically presented their work to the public and younger students and answered scores of questions about rocketry and CanSat devices. Dr. Vern Takebayashi and his computer technology student, Robert Allen, gave a computer programming workshop at the Astronaut Lacy Veach Day of Discovery at Punahou School, October 29, 2005. The rest of the HCC CanSat team set up a CanSat display. The students also set up a CanSat display at the 2006 Astronuat Lacy Veach Day. Dr. Takata served as a co-director for the 2005 and 2006 Lacy Veach Day events.

http://www.spacegrant.hawaii.edu/ Communications: Linda Martel Updated November, 2006.