UK TO LAUNCH SATELLITE controlled by a mobile phone
The unique STRaND-1 satellite, developed by researchers from the University of Surrey, will be fully controlled by a Google Nexus phone during part of its six-month space mission.
It was launched into a 785km sun-synchronous orbit on the Indian Space Research Organisation’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from Sriharikota, India, on February 25. The satellite’s launch will be an interesting test of the oft-repeated claim that the mobile phone in your pocket has more computing power than was used to send a man to the Moon.
At the heart of STRaND-1 is an unmodified Nexus One smartphone running an Android operating system, according to Dr Chris Bridges, the Surrey Space Centre’s lead engineer on the venture.
‘We haven’t gutted the Nexus. We’ve done lots and lots of tests on it; we’ve put our own software on it. But we’ve essentially got a regular phone, connected up the USB to it and put it in the satellite,’ he told the BBC.
The smartphone is pressed up against a side panel of the 30cm-long, 4.3kg cubesat, so that it’s 5MP camera can look out and take pictures of the Earth and the Moon.
The STRaND-1 (which stands for Surrey Training Research and Nanosatellite Demonstration) is a joint project between Surrey Space Centre and Surrey Satellite Technology Limited, a world leader in small commercial spacecraft.
Modern smartphones contain advanced technologies and incorporate several key features that are essential to satellites like cameras, radio links, accelerometers and high performance computer processors.
Add in solar panels and propulsion systems and that’s almost everything a spacecraft needs to fly.
During the first phase of the mission, STRaND-1 will use a number of experimental ‘Apps’ to collect data whilst a new highspeed linux-based CubeSat computer developed by SSC takes care of the satellite.
In phase two, the STRaND-1 team plan to switch the satellite’s in-orbit operations to the smartphone, thereby testing the capabilities of a number of standard smartphone components for a space environment.
Dr Bridges added: ‘A smartphone on a satellite like this has never been launched before but our tests have been pretty thorough, subjecting the phone to oven and freezer temperatures, to a vacuum and blasting it with radiation.
The satellite will be commissioned and operated from the Surrey Space Centre’s ground station at the University of Surrey.
Being the first smartphone satellite in orbit is just one of many ‘firsts’ that STRaND-1 is hoping to achieve.
Doug Liddle, head of science for SSTL, said: ‘We’ve deliberately asked this enthusiastic and talented young team to do something very non-standard in terms of the timescales, processes and the technologies used to put the satellite together because we want to maximise what we learn from this research programme. ‘I can’t wait to see what happens next.’ STRaND-2 is already in development.