British engineers are planning to put a mobile phone in space
Baku, January 24 (AZERTAC). The team at Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) in Guildford wants to see if the sophisticated capabilities in today`s phones will function in the most challenging environment known. The phone will run on Google`s Android operating system but the exact model has not yet been disclosed. It will be used to control a 30cm-long satellite and take pictures of the Earth in the mission later this year.
Although mobile phones have been flown on high altitude balloons before, this would likely be the first time such a device has gone into orbit several hundred kilometers above the planet.
“Modern smartphones are pretty amazing,” said SSTL project manager Shaun Kenyon.
The venture is part of the company`s quest to find more inexpensive, off-the-shelf electronics that can be used to lower the cost of its spacecraft designs.
The mission is known as STRaND-1 (Surrey Training Research and Nanosatellite Demonstration). It involves both the company and researchers from the local university`s Surrey Space Centre (SSC).
Much of the development work has been done in team-members` spare time.
For the first part of the mission, the mobile will act as the back-up to the main computer on the spacecraft. After a period of time, however, the phone will be put in charge.
SSTL has earned a worldwide reputation for its small satellites. The coming months will see the company launch Earth observation spacecraft for Nigerian, Russian and Canadian customers.
It is also about to start building the spacecraft that will form the initial constellation of Galileo, Europe`s multi-billion-euro answer to America`s GPS network.
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