India’s PSLV launches STRaND-1 to check if you hear screams in space

This copy incorrectly mentioned SARAL as the smartphone-operated satellite when the satellite is STRaND-1. We have corrected this error and apologise for the same.  
India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C20 (PSLV-C20), standing 44.4 metres tall which carried seven satellites into space yesterday, included Indo-French satellite SARAL, STRaND-1 the world’s first smart phone-operated nano satellite.
SARAL STRaND-1 is part of a mission by students from the University of Surrey. They hope to use a purpose-built app to test the theory, immortalised in the film Alien, that “in space no-one can hear you scream”. The phone will play out several of the screams submitted by people online, reported the BBC.

The Scream in Space app will test the theory that you can’t hear screams in space. AFP

The Google Nexus One android smartphone has been loaded with special experimental apps and will act as the ‘brain of the satellite’, reported Daily Mail.
The website of this project says, “The Scream in Space app plays winning YouTube videos, records audio, and takes photos of your face in space!”
The BBC reports that the screams set for intergalactic broadcast include an ear-busting effort from Year 6 at Chudleigh CE Community Primacy School and a very dramatic “nooooooo!” from Richard Barrington.
Scream in Space won a competition run by Surrey Satellite Techonology Ltd (SSTL) in 2011 to propose an idea for an app to run on their STRaND-1 smartphone nano-satellite.
The website says that the app will take pictures using the phone’s built-in five megapixel camera, and will act as a method of establishing the satellite’s position. The photos will be posted on Facebook.