It turns out that the Antares rocket launch on Sunday wasn't merely a test to see if NASA and Orbital Sciences Corp. can provide crew and cargo to the International Space Station. NASA snuck three smartphones aboard the Antares rocket, which the administration plans to use as low-cost satellites.
The phones are part of NASA's "PhoneSats" mission to see if smartphones can be used as the key avionics of a satellite.
"Smartphones offer a wealth of potential capabilities for flying small, low-cost, powerful satellites for atmospheric or Earth science, communications, or other space-born applications," NASA Associate Administrator for Space Technology in Washington Michael Gazarik said in a statement. "They also may open space to a whole new generation of commercial, academic and citizen-space users."
Transmissions received on the ground by the PhoneSat team at the Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., indicate that all three smartphones are still functioning normally. The team will continue to monitor the smartphones, as they are expected to stay in orbit for up to two weeks.
The smartphone-based satellites will perform a number of tasks in space, including relaying information about their health through radio to show that they are operational. They will also make an attempt at taking pictures of Earth. The smartphone systems made by NASA already have many of the components necessary for a satellite, including multiple miniature sensors, versatile operating systems, high-resolution cameras, GPS receivers, fast processors and a number of radios.
NASA kept the cost of the components for the PhoneSat project between $3,500 and $7,000. For hardware, NASA used the Google-HTC Nexus One. NASA beefed up its PhoneSats by adding a more powerful radio and an external lithium-ion battery. The phones are unable to send and receive calls during orbit.
