Where, you ask, is taxpayer money going these days? Launching cell phones into space, obviously. But, before you go calling your local representative to complain, there is a method to the apparent madness.
NASA’s PhoneSat project is designed to determine how everyday technology can be used to power and control larger devices. In this case, how can smartphone technology be used in conjunction with satellites. For the project, three HTC Nexus One smartphones (named Alexander, Graham, and Bell. Get it?) were strapped to a rocket and launched into low orbit to take pictures of the Earth.
Android’s open-source OS allows PhoneSat to equip each phone with a special app that transmits information such as the pictures taken and battery health. The app automatically selects the best pictures, which are then wirelessly sent back to Earth where radio operators can intercept and acquire the signal. NASA’s goal is to have these people work in collaboration by sending in the images they have collected and piece together a larger picture.
Due to smartphones wielding so much power in such small a device, yesterdays must-haves may soon become tomorrow’s biggest bargain. With budget constraints constantly at the forefront of problems for NASA, smartphones could eventually act as potential replacements for bulky space instruments.
Though we likely will not have an Apple branded satellite in geosynchronous orbit anytime soon, it is great to see new ways of recycling technology that has been tossed aside.
