'PHONESAT' was first successfully launched into orbit

Strand-1, the first satellite in the world to be "completely" controlled by the Nexus One phone was successfully launched this Monday from India and the UK's first CubeSat satellite.

>>>Video: PhoneSat Strand-1 in space

News from Surrey's home page, the Google Nexus One has fulfilled its dream of traveling in space when it has been launched into orbit on a CubeSat satellite (small satellites usually have a volume of about 1 liter), delivered developed by Surrey Satellite Technology and the Space Research Center of Surrey University. Strand-1 (short for Surrey Training Research and Nanosatellite Demonstration) currently holds the honor of being the first satellite in the world to be "completely" controlled by the Nexus One phone.

The satellite consists of a height control and orbital control system, two thrusters, a Linux computer, a high-speed and indispensable processor " Nexus One " operator . Chris Bridges, head of the Strand-1 research team, said the Nexus One was not tweaking any hardware. The device is only included in the team's customized software, connected to a USB cable and then placed in the satellite. Strand-1 has a length of 30cm, weighs 4.3kg. The device will have a small hole to allow the 5 megapixel camera on the Nexus One to capture the Earth and Moon.

At the beginning of the mission, the Strand-1 will be controlled by a high-speed Linux computer developed by the Surrey Space Agency. Going to the second stage, if everything goes well, the Nexus One will take control of this satellite model. Previously NASA also had the prototype of PhoneSat satellite equipped with Nexus One and Nexus S, but two smartphones here do not have full control over satellites but only perform some essential commands. Researchers also said that in the first weeks was the time to test two new propulsion systems. The first system, called Warp Drive, uses a method of spraying a mixture of alcohol and water to create thrust. The second is to use "plasma pulses , " in which the current will be used to heat and divide a material in order to create a cloud of charged gas. This gas is then able to accelerate in one direction as it enters the magnetic field and forces the satellite to fly in a different direction.

Scientists in Surrey also install Nexus One with many "applications" for research. One of them is the Scream in Space application built by students of Cambridge University. The application will use the Nexus One to play the video with a scene of a screaming person. The purpose of this is to check whether the sentence "in space, no one can hear your shout" is true or not. To do that, a camera will return to the Nexus One process of playing videos. The camera is also responsible for finding out if the magnetic field sensor available on the Nexus One can be used in the universe.

With the Strand project, Surrey satellite technology research firm hopes to learn more lessons to apply to more traditional products. In the future, it will only use the necessary smartphone components to mount its $ 30 million satellite, such as Wi-Fi chips, ARM processors, and so on. Android will also help call for community development instead of just assigning a small group of programmers. Currently the Strand-2 model is also being developed in a two-satellite model using Microsoft's Kinect sensor to locate and stitch together in the universe.