UK Firm Will Launch Android Smartphone into Orbit as the Brains of a Microsatellite - Polidicks

[QUOTE]We’ve heard of satellite phones before, but never one quite like this: a UK firm plans to launch an Android-based smartphone into orbit later this year, using it to control a 30-centimenter long microsatellite and to snap images of the Earth with its built-in camera. The effort, led by a team at Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) in Guildford, UK, wants to see just how well smartphones can function in the hostile environs of space. Plenty of phones have journeyed to the upper atmosphere aboard high-altitude balloons and homemade rockets, but SSTL’s phone will be the first one we know of that will be put into orbit as part of the functioning hardware of a satellite. Engineers at SSTL want to explore the ways smartphones—which have become increasingly powerful computers in recent years—can be integrated into satellite systems and whether or not the phone can control a small satellite. The mission, known as STRaND-1 (Surrey Training Research and Nanosatellite Demonstration, will integrate the whole phone into the satellite—that is, they won’t strip the insides out and repurpose them in some other way. In fact, while the phone’s own camera will be used to snap images of Earth, a second camera will be mounted inside the satellites housing to gather imagery of the phone’s screen as the team operates the phone remotely. The whole idea is that phones are already inexpensive technology packages containing various sensors and accelerometers, Wi-Fi and GPS receivers, and camera technologies. Initially the phone (the specific model has not yet been disclosed) will act as a backup to the main computer on the satellite, but in time mission handlers want to phone to take over all functions of STRaND-1, including control of the guidance, navigation, and pulse plasma propulsion systems. The idea is to see how the phone’s open-source Android software can be modified to optimize the phone’s functions for spacecraft control. If it works, ostensibly software designers could design all kinds of apps for future microsatellite missions. That would essentially turn Android into an open source platform not just for phone OS design but for satellite design as well, making space a far more open place. [img]http://www.popsci.com/files/imagecache/article_image_large/articles/STRaND.jpg[/img][/QUOTE] Source: [url]http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-01/uk-firm-will-launch-android-smartphone-orbit-brains-and-eyes-microsatellite[/url]

I want to txt that phone somehow.

[QUOTE=ThatHippyMan;27637369]I want to txt that phone somehow.[/QUOTE] no signal

[QUOTE=Spooefy;27637439]no signal[/QUOTE] My dreams... :smith:

[QUOTE=Spooefy;27637439]no signal[/QUOTE] But it will be even close to the Satellite wont it :D

This is awesome on so many levels.

So. Cool.

Meh, call me when someone uses a smartphone to coordinate satellite orientation and trajectory using live information and making decisions in less than a seconds notice. All the while being the main computing platform of the device.

[IMG]http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/hs051.snc6/168180_117062875032300_100001857642670_136958_3518341_n.jpg[/IMG] That's what I thought. Though some may label this experiment pointless, I label it as awesome.

It's so silly to seriously consider a phone as the "brain" of a satellite. Honestly, how dumb is that? When I already pay thousands of dollars to get that thing into space, I can spend a few hundred dollars more on appropiate hardware.

[QUOTE=garrynohome;27638825][img_thumb]http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/hs051.snc6/168180_117062875032300_100001857642670_136958_3518341_n.jpg[/img_thumb] That's what I thought. Though some may label this experiment pointless, I label it as awesome.[/QUOTE] Lol, seriously? It's open source and free to use; why WOULDN'T they use it, nor do I see why anyone could use this offensively towards Apple, it's ridiculous. Like saying that Android > iOS because your washing machine runs it.

What if someone hacks it?

They were going to use an iPhone but the app was rejected from the store. :wink:

[QUOTE=ChristopherB;27644332]They were going to use an iPhone but the app was rejected from the store. :wink:[/QUOTE] They'll eventually switch to something else when this gets spyware.

[QUOTE=ifaux;27644542]They'll eventually switch to something else when this gets spyware.[/QUOTE] Except I doubt it'll be connected to the internet. Since you know, no hardlines trailing along and I doubt WiFi reaches low level orbit