First Smartphone into Space Launched Successfully From India

The Surrey Space Centre (SSC) of the University of Surrey on 26 February 2013 announced that STRaND-1, a nano-satellite carrying a smartphone was launched successfully into space from India. With this launch, India became the first country to successfully launch the first smartphone of the world.

About STRaND-1 and apps on board

STRaND-1 is the training and demonstration mission which is designed in order to test the commercial shelf technology in space. There are certain applications on board STRaND-1. These applications were designed by the winners of social networking site, Facebook competition which was organised in 2012.

STRaND-1 mission weighs 4.3 kg and was launched in 785km Sun-synchronous orbit on the PSLV launcher of ISRO.
 
• For example, iTesa will help in recording the magnitude of the magnetic field which surrounds the smartphone during its orbit. The app called iTesa will in turn also help in detection of magnetic oscillations in the upper atmosphere, called Alfven waves.
• Another app called Scream in Space was designed by the Cambridge University Space Flight. This application will be making use of the speakers of smartphones.
• Yet another app is called STRAND Data. This application will help in showing the satellite telemetry on the display of the smartphone. This in turn would be visible on the additional camera on-board. This eventually will allow new graphical telemetry for interpreting the trends.
• 360 app allows taking images with the help of camera of smartphone. This application will also help in using the technology on-board for establishing the position of STRaND-1.