According to Alien director Ridley Scott, in space, no one can hear you scream. This statement stands to some reason; space is a vacuum with a severe drought of molecules bouncing around, so there’s nothing to carry the sound waves.
But researchers at the University of Surrey don’t quite buy it. That’s why they’ve sent a smartphone into space aboard a 9.5 lb satellite. The phone will spend several months orbiting Earth and broadcasting screams into the darkness. Researchers will then monitor to see if the phone’s voice receiver picks up the noise.
To make things a bit more interactive, the researchers solicited scream donations from the public, so space will be graciously receiving a contribution from these sixth year students at Chudleigh Community School in the UK…
The smartphone satellite is the first of its kind and will be testing out two new types of propulsion: Warp Drive movement, which uses a water and alcohol solution, and pulsed plasma thrusters, which use heat to evaporate certain materials that are then jettisoned outward to propel the satellite.