NASA PhoneSat Project Has Android Nexus Phones At Its Core
Reducing costs seems to be among the top items on to-do lists these days and NASA is no exception either. The agency’s latest project, dubbed PhoneSat, is aiming towards building and launching the “lowest-cost and easiest to build satellites ever flown in space”.
We’ve seen Android being used officially in some instances before (Army tryouts and other Government-related tests alongside private corporate adoption) but this time the little green robot will go into space. PhoneSat 1 will be powered by a Google Nexus One (first gen, HTC-built), and its main purpose will be to send pictures from space. It will also do self-monitoring activities and sending back logs to Earth.
PhoneSat 2 is more evolved, having the Samsung-made Nexus S at its core, pimped out with two-way S-band radio, solar panels, and a GPS transponder. Two PhoneSat 1 satellites and one PhoneSat 2 should go up in space on the back of a rocket later this year. The total cost of each satellite is capped at $3,500, which is pretty good; in fact it’s that good we wish we’d build/buy our own.
Source: NASA
Via: The Verge