NASA’s PhoneSat mission launches successfully
Posted on: 24/Apr/2013 2:43:41 PM
NASA has successfully launched three smartphones into space to snap images of Earth, and the handsets may prove to be the lowest-cost satellites ever flown into space.
The goal of NASA’s PhoneSat mission is to determine whether a consumer-grade smartphone can be used as the main flight avionics of a capable, yet very inexpensive, satellite.
“Smartphones offer a wealth of potential capabilities for flying small, low-cost, powerful satellites for atmospheric or Earth science, communications, or other space-borne applications,” said Michael Gazarik, NASA’s associate administrator for space technology.
The hardware for this mission is the Google-HTC Nexus One smartphone running the Android operating system.NASA added items a satellite needs that the smartphones do not have a larger, external lithium-ion battery bank and a more powerful radio for messages it sends from space. The smartphone’s ability to send and receive calls and text messages has been disabled.
