Credit: SSTL
The SSTL STRaND-1 Team. Credit: SSTL
How to test the theory ‘in space no one can hear you scream’ – made popular in the 1979 film ‘Alien’?
Space technology experts from Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL) and the Surrey Space Centre (SSC) at the University of Surrey have announced the winners of a ‘Space App Competition’.
The contest was designed to solicit creative use of Android Applications run on the smartphone-powered satellite — STRaND-1– due for launch into space next year.
A competition winner is the student-run society Cambridge University Spaceflight. Their ‘Scream in Space!’ will allow the public to upload videos of themselves screaming in a creative way to an allocated website. The most popular videos will be played on the phone when the satellite is in orbit, and the scream recorded using the smartphone’s microphone.
Coming in as joint winners is ‘Postcards from space’ and ‘360’ using an app that will take images using the smartphone’s camera and use the technology available on the satellite to establish the satellite’s position.
The public will be able to request their own unique satellite image of Earth through a website, where images also can be seen on a map showing where they have been acquired.
Detecting Alfvén waves
Another winner is using the phone and satellite magnetometers. The ‘iTesa’ app will be able to record the magnitude of the magnetic field about the phone during orbit. Used as a precursor to further scientific studies, such as detecting Alfvén waves (magnetic oscillations in our upper atmosphere), the iTesa app could provide proof of principle, and explores the possibility of using a mobile phone for scientific use in space.
Lastly, ‘The STRaND Data’ app will show satellite telemetry on the smartphone’s display which can be imaged by an additional camera on-board. This app is developed by the team behind FUNcube (UK Amateur Radio Educational Satellite).
This app will not only enable new graphical telemetry to interpret trends but also provide a way of communicating with the smart-phone.
According to STRaND-1 system engineer, Shaun Kenyon: “After some tough judging, we’ve chosen the four winning Apps and are really excited about what they will do in space. The Apps make full use of the phone, meaning that we’ll see some pretty cool stuff that hasn’t been done before.”
To find out more about the progress of the STRaND-1 mission, follow @SurreyNanosats on Twitter.
Or visit the STRaND Facebook page at:
By Leonard David