Android By Lee Mathews Dec. 9, 2013 12:30 pm
More than a year ago, NASA revealed PhoneSat 1, a diminutive $3,500 satellite powered by a Nexus smartphone and designed to test the viability of using off-the-shelf components. Last month, PhoneSat 2.4 hitched a ride into space.
Now, NASA is happy to report that one of its tiny cubes has phoned home using its Samsung Nexus S core. That means all systems are go, and the second-gen satellite and its companion cubes can begin their year-long exercise in orbit.
A total of eleven PhoneSats were deployed on November 19, and their mission serves three purposes. In addition to gathering scientific data about their surroundings and helping NASA determine how well the DIY-style design will hold up in space, they’ll also be the guinea pigs for NASA’s new system to control the orientation of the PhoneSats while in orbit.
The second version cost a bit more than the original. Even at* around $7,500 each, though, the fleet of 11 PhoneSats rang up a total of just $82,500. That’s still just a fraction of the cost of a traditional satellite.
NASA is taking a page out of Google’s product release playbook with PhoneSats. They plan to iterate rapidly, turning out an updated version of the design (and launching it) every 3 to 6 months. That’s not quite Chrome release fast, but it’s an amazingly short cycle for a satellite when you look at how long the process used to take.
By building the PhoneSat cubes around a standard Android smartphone, NASA’s ensuring that it won’t run into a component supply issue like it has before. Shopping for spare parts on eBay is no way for the space agency to keep its spacecraft functioning.
Now read: NASA is creating “genius materials” on board ISS
More...
Now, NASA is happy to report that one of its tiny cubes has phoned home using its Samsung Nexus S core. That means all systems are go, and the second-gen satellite and its companion cubes can begin their year-long exercise in orbit.
A total of eleven PhoneSats were deployed on November 19, and their mission serves three purposes. In addition to gathering scientific data about their surroundings and helping NASA determine how well the DIY-style design will hold up in space, they’ll also be the guinea pigs for NASA’s new system to control the orientation of the PhoneSats while in orbit.
The second version cost a bit more than the original. Even at* around $7,500 each, though, the fleet of 11 PhoneSats rang up a total of just $82,500. That’s still just a fraction of the cost of a traditional satellite.
NASA is taking a page out of Google’s product release playbook with PhoneSats. They plan to iterate rapidly, turning out an updated version of the design (and launching it) every 3 to 6 months. That’s not quite Chrome release fast, but it’s an amazingly short cycle for a satellite when you look at how long the process used to take.
By building the PhoneSat cubes around a standard Android smartphone, NASA’s ensuring that it won’t run into a component supply issue like it has before. Shopping for spare parts on eBay is no way for the space agency to keep its spacecraft functioning.
Now read: NASA is creating “genius materials” on board ISS
More...
