India launches first smartphone in space
India space agency has successfully launched the first
smartphone of the University of Surrey's Surrey Space Centre (SSC) into orbit.
The university's SSC said that the nano-satellite carrying a
smartphone, STRaND-1 has been launched into space by the Indian Space Research
Organisation (ISRO). The STRaND-1 is a training and demonstration mission and
is loaded with a host of experimental apps. The device was launched into a
785km Sun-synchronous orbit on ISRO's PSLV launcher.
The apps for the first smartphone in space were developed by
winners of a competition on social networking site, Facebook. The smartphone
has an app called, iTesa which will record the magnitude of the magnetic field
around the device during orbit. The app could be used for further scientific
studies by researchers.
The Scream in Space app, which was developed by Cambridge
University Space Flight, will
use the smartphone's speakers to play videos of the best
screams in orbit while its microphone will record the voices to test the theory
that no one hear screen in space.
Another app called, STRAND Data app will show satellite
telemetry of the display and it will be recorded using the additional camera
on-board. It will allow new graphical telemetry to improve understanding of the
trends. The device also has the 360 app that take images through the
smartphone's camera and uses the technology to determine the position of the
spacecraft.
Sir Martin added, "This launch is SSC's first with
ISRO, and I am looking forward to exploring opportunities for further launches
and a wider collaboration on space projects in the future."
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