Author: Niño Ged Alajid
The second iteration of the Philippine Can Satellite and Rocket Competition is now officially open for participants in the Philippines. Participants will experience a full exposure of an aerospace mission from concept formulation, systems design, rocket launch operations, payload integration, data acquisition and post-flight analysis. Organized by Indiana Aerospace University, PCSRC 2026 provides an avenue to foster innovation and hands-on aerospace development for students in the Philippines.
For students to be eligible to join, they must form a team with 3-5 members with at least 1 adviser to assist. Undergraduates must be enrolled for A.Y. 2025-2026, representing their University/College. For the high school participants, they must be enrolled in the Junior High School Program of A.Y. 2025-2026. Multiple teams are allowed to register from a school/college/university, but mixed teams from different schools are not allowed. The PCSRC 2026 has categories for Highschool (Rocket Only Category, Can Satellite Only Category), Undergraduate (SRAD Rocket Category, Can Satellite Rocket Category).
Schools and research teams are encouraged to register and prepare for the preliminary orientation and technical workshops scheduled in the first quarter of 2026. Final launch events are expected to be held on May 25-30 2026 or on June 1-5, 2026, where top-performing CanSats and rockets will be launched in Barangay Caputatan Sur, Medellin, Cebu (subject to change).
If you’re a student in the Philippines, or affiliated in any organization that could help the competition to be a success, you can contact the IAU – AE Research and Development to join the competition.
Call for Sponsors
After my team won the Highest Technical Advancement award in the CanSat category at last year’s Philippine Can Satellite and Rocket Competition, we’re preparing to return for PCSRC 2026 with a more ambitious Earth observation payload. Our team needs your support to make our mission possible. As the Software, Data and Electronics Designer, I’ve developed the Unsynchronized Data Acquisition Algorithm without blocking buffer memory, enabling faster update rates and freeing compute resources for SD card operations, Madgwick-based attitude estimation, and telemetry.
For our next mission, we will replace the RF detector with a Land Surface Temperature (LST) detector. To address a key limitation, accurate yaw determination is achieved through the integration of a photoresistor-based sun tracking system and a full Attitude and Heading Reference System (AHRS).
In simple terms, we are building a small, low-cost satellite payload that can sense its orientation and temperature patterns accurately enough to map how heat behaves over an area. This is a miniature testbed for future local Earth observation missions. Our payload will generate meaningful thermal maps that can inform studies on urban heat islands and local microclimate, especially for rapidly growing Philippine communities.
We are seeking sponsorship to cover materials, testing, and travel costs for our CanSat–Rocket mission in PCSRC 2026. In return, sponsors will receive logo placement on our CanSat and rocket, recognition in presentations and online posts (subject to change).
Contact me on LinkedIn if you want to support our team in participating in this competition. You can also contact me on my WhatsApp, Viber, or my Phone Number: +63 995 022 5226. Or on my external email: contact.ninoged@gmail.com.
More info on my website: ninoged.com
