Klaus: Smartphone Satellite

By David Klaus: Designed and built by British engineers in their spare time in only three months, massing less than ten pounds, no larger than a chrome toaster oven, STRaND 1 will phone home, and includes an app that tests whether in space anyone can hear you scream. It is not, however, in a blue box.

I didn’t think you could put so many in-jokes into one satellite.

Here’s what Spaceflight Now says about the capabilities of STRaND 1 (Surrey Training, Research, and Nanosatellite Demonstrator) —

The phone is mounted on a panel inside the satellite, with its camera aligned with a hole to take pictures of Earth…

Applications installed on the smartphone will help control the satellite, collect scientific data and try to boost interest in space exploration. The Scream in Space app… will play videos of the best screams while in orbit, and the screams will be recorded using the smartphone’s own microphone. iTesa will record the magnitude of the magnetic field around the phone in orbit… The STRAND Data app will show satellite telemetry on the smartphone’s display… The 360 app will take images using the smartphone’s camera and use the technology onboard the spacecraft to establish STRaND-1’s position. The public will be able to request their own unique satellite image of Earth through the website, where images can be seen on a map showing where they have been acquired.