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Smartphones. We carry them in our pockets,
toss them in our tote bags and have them at the ready whenever we want directions
to a destination or to snap a picture or to call a friend.
Perhaps we're often guilty of taking the gadgets'
microprocessing powers for granted. Not so with NASA, which just sent
three smartphones into space as low-cost satellites.
PhoneSats
When Orbital Sciences' Antares rocket launched from
NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on its first test flight Sunday, the
privately built booster carried a payload to simulate the cargo craft that will
one day dock with the International Space Station.
But Antares also placed into orbit several new
mini-satellites built mainly with smartphone components, which the U.S. space
agency is calling their PhoneSats. The three so-called PhoneSats are named
'Alexander,' 'Graham,' and 'Bell,' after the inventor of the telephone.
The PhoneSats are small cubes, each about the size
of a beverage mug and weighing a little more than a kilogram. At the core
of each is a Google-HTC Nexus One phone, whose zippy little microprocessor --
running the Android operating system -- serves as the onboard computer.
Operating
in Orbit
Jim Cockrell, the PhoneSat Project Manager at NASA's
Ames Research Center in California, described the project in a video broadcast
on NASA TV ahead of the Antares launch.
"Someone here asked the question, 'Can we fly a
cell phone as the avionics for a satellite and have something that's very
capable but really, really inexpensive?' So PhoneSat was launched to try to
answer that question," he said.
NASA says the three PhoneSats are operating in
orbit, and transmissions from the trio have been received at various ground
stations here on Earth.
Low-Cost
Satellites
Engineers spent between $3,500 and $7,000 for the
PhoneSat components. They did add a larger, external lithium-ion battery bank
and a more powerful radio to send messages.
The space agency says smartphones have more than 100
times the computing power of an average satellite. Researchers note that
smartphones come equipped with fast processors, high-resolution cameras, global
positioning system receivers, radios and sensors.
"The smartphone vendors have put a lot of
R&D [research and development] money into making very, very capable
microprocessors that have a lot of processing power and speed in a package
that's very rugged," said NASA's Cockrell.
Monitoring
PhoneSat Transmissions
Researchers continue to monitor the satellites,
which could remain in orbit for about two weeks. NASA adds that amateur
radio operators can monitor the transmissions themselves. Each satellite
will broadcast a signal every 30 seconds on the amateur UHF band 437.425
MHz.
The PhoneSats will attempt to take pictures of our
planet as well as send information via radio back to Earth.
Think about that next time you pull your phone from
your pocket. But don't think about texting 'Alexander' 'Graham' or
'Bell.' NASA says it has disabled their ability to send and receive calls
and texts.
Sources :
http://www.voanews.com/content/relay-on-a-smartphone-new-nasa-satelittes-do/1646933.html
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