Cantabs Attempt To Prove Alien Hypothesis

The University Spaceflight Society are testing the truth behind Alien‘s tagline, “In space, no one can hear you scream” by sending screams into space.

Members of the public have been invited to submit their loudest screams, which are sent into space by using a specially designed Android app as part of a satellite payload in early December.

When in orbit, the screams will play at full volume while simultaneously recording audio.

The phone will then send back pictures of each ‘scream’ video playing against the backdrop of Earth seen from the phone’s camera with a sound file of the ‘scream.’

An image taken from space with an Android phone from a previous CUSF experiment

Despite this, CUSF are not expecting much actual sound though with the point of the experiment being to encourage kids to get involved in science.

Edward Cunningham, member of CUSF and Physics undergrad at Churchill, told The Tab: “Obviously we’re not expecting to get much back. There may be some buzzing, but this is more about getting young people interested in satellites, perhaps encouraging them to consider future study in science or engineering.”

Any member of the public can submit their scream to be transmitted in space by uploading a ten second ‘scream’ video to Youtube and submitting the entry to www.screaminspace.com. The public will vote for their ten favourite screams and the closing date for entries in Sunday 4^th November.

CUSF is not stranger to low-budget projects to encourage wider participation in science. In 2008 they sent ‘teddy-nauts’ in to the stratosphere equipped with cameras to get more kids interested in science.