Am I missing something?

[Robert]

Or is this idea so flawed as to be one of the greatest wastes of resources ever to come out of Cambridge University?
http://www.screaminspace.com/mission

In space no one can hear you scream.


Later this year, a nanosatellite will be launched into orbit around the Earth, carrying an Android smartphone which will serve as the platform for our investigation. Videos of people screaming will be played from YouTube, and we'll be recording with a microphone to see what we can hear.

At first I thought the microphone would be isolated from the 'phone which, although not as viable a test as having the speaker and and mic. on two completely isolated satellites, would still be better than what these scientists apparently intend:

In coming up with this idea, we thought about what features the Android phone has which are not usually present on conventional satellites - and naturally the speaker and microphone are two such components. It would seem a shame not to leverage the power of these additions..

Given that the mic and speaker are physically connected by being part of the same device, the scream will (almost certainly, dependent upon the rating/capabilities of the mic) be recorded.

To my lay-eyes (and equally lay-ears) they would be better served by having two phone's, as isolated from each other as practicable, then compare the recordings between the two with the recordings from the single device that they are intending.

Lastly, I know this is probably just a publicity stunt, rather than an actual experiment but I'm feeling particularly curmudgeonly today.

 

[robert l. bentham]

damn... whole thing looks fucktarded to me... im curmudgeonly too... on the one hand i wanna say good grief and on the other hand i thnk, hope somebody gettin paid to do that. prolly be a good gig for somebody.

 

[Robert]

An update on this and, I'm happy to report, I'm far less grumpy about it today than I was the day I posted the thread (although, since it appears that they *might* actually be using a separate mic, it's not *quite* as idiotic as I originally thought. Almost but not quite):

Surrey-based space boffins have put a Google Nexus 1 into orbit to see how an Android phone copes with the rigours of space - and whether they can hear it scream.

Once in command, the Nexus 1 will take some snaps with its integrated camera and measure changes in the surrounding magnetic field using its built-in magnometer. It'll also play videos of people screaming and film that using a microphone and separate camera, a homage to the Alien movie tagline "in space no one can hear you scream". This, er, experiment was suggested by Cambridge University students.
The screaming is quite silly given the way sound fails to propagate through the vacuum of space (much to the annoyance of many a Hollywood director), but it serves to publicise the project. The second camera will also record another screen showing the satellite's telemetry.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/02/26/android_space/