Your average satellite these days is roughly on par in terms of size with your average living room, give or take, and so naturally the cost of lofting one into orbit is, if you'll pardon the phrase,
sky high. Despite that, many offer less processing power a mobile processor like
Snapdragon. The obvious solution? Chuck a smartphone into orbit and revel in the savings. That's the idea behind the PhoneSat, helped along by the Mavericks Civilian Space Foundation, which strapped a
Nexus One into a rocket with 1,000lbs of thrust and threw it up to 28,000 feet to see how it copes with the immense stress of riding into space. Of course, 28,000 feet isn't quite space (NASA would have run out of astronaut badges long ago), but the G-forces and temperature cycles felt during this short trip are comparable to a one-way voyage to orbit. The first such launch didn't go so well, with the rocket suffering a ballistic return -- coming in like a projectile without a 'chute. The shattered remains of that are shown above. But, the second flight was rather more successful, and the video results can be seen below -- captured by the phone itself.
Update:
Matt Reyes, one of the folks behind the launch, wrote in to let us know of
another article here on the project, including more details on the history of the team and the various hardware beyond the N1 payload. Matt, along with project members
Chris Boshuizen and
Will Marshall, are NASA engineers, helped by Ryan Hickman at Google, which probably helps to explain how they were able to get from the photo above to the successful launch below in just one iteration.
[Photo credit: Steve Jurvetson]
posted July 30th 2010 2:40PM
DAMN, that phone is cracked......
@Hell Angel
so how far from the launch site did it land?
@Hell Angel
Pssh, can't handle being smashed into the ground by a rocket.
@Hell Angel
Someone dun goofed up...
@Hell Angel
My brothers iphone4 looks almost that bad, and his only dropped from about 5ft when he was getting stuff out of his truck
@Hell Angel
Apple PR: And as you can clearly see from this image, a Nexus One suffers severe signal degradation when temporarily relocated to the upper atmosphere without any attenuation at all!
@Hell Angel
Judging from the composition of the pic the photog is less interested in the phone then he is letting on.
@mythgarr
It really does lose signal. On ascent the exhaust plume is ionized, degrading any signal. At altitude there isn't much cell signal anyway, as shooting a cell signal up in the air is wasteful.
is white iPhone that big a deal? http://www.hedgefundlive.com/notes
@gn7465
Thanks captain obvious
@Hell Angel
... and the number of Nexus One's on the world has decreased--forever.
If that was shot with the phones' camera, I guess when you drop a phone from 28,000 feet it lands on it's side.
@Hell Angel if this was an EVO it would have transformed into a plane and then flew away.
@rchives It does when it's strapped to a rocket. How do you think the phone got to 28k feet?
Had this been an iPhone, every news outlet in the country would be running the headline: "iPHONE 4 SCREEN DOES NOT SURVIVE REENTRY FROM SPACE!!!"
@Hell An The Nexus One made those cracks on the ground when it landed.
@pankomputerek
At least it already went to 'heaven' :), and made it to the top of the world:)
Btw, very beautiful blue sky.
@rchives
I was thinking the same. How does it landed sideways?!..
Hmm, strange... fake?!
@HotFuzz
yeah but iPhone 4 is a much more important device than the nexus fail.
@HotFuzz
They really wouldn't, some would post it but it would be a bit redundant, saying the iPhone can't survive re-entry from 5 foot up, doesn't seem like we should even bother with 28 k.
@NINJA1200 Not fake. I edited the video (which you can see) so that the image turns 90 degrees.
haha that was an awesome vid.
@MoonWalkerCTE
i can't get the song "you spin me right round baby right round" out of my head now...
@MoonWalkerCTE
diiiiiiiiiiiiiiizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
...i think i just got a headache from that.
@MoonWalkerCTE
My head's still spinnin'. I think I'm gonna be sick...
But watching the video that asctually looks really cool
very cool video, even if i do feel sick while watching it
That video was out of this world!
So was my head after watching it though. Sheesh.
Sweet video!!
@Rick Astley
The Earth will never give up that phone.
Although it did let it go down.
...
I'll be leaving now.
@Rick Astley You managed to get THAT name, and you don't even care to make any jokes? ANYONE could do that, even without the talent Lord Vader has to do his thing.
28,000 feet?
/sunglasses
That's real fro, yo.
YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Hi is that HTC warranty support? - I've dropped my nexus one and i think it's broken"
@humanerror GOLD!
@humanerror
well they never really noted how high u can drop it before its void....
@humanerror
It's a good thing there's not an altimeter in the Nexus One, otherwise they'd just check some data and say, "I'm sorry, our records indicate that your Nexus One was launched into the stratosphere at a humanly impossible rate of speed and then came crashing down from 28,000 feet. Since there is no way that you were operating within normal parameters, your warranty is now voided. Have a nice day!" All said with that über-fake smiley tone.
@humanerror
haha, i get it, cause the phone fell really far, and its funny to think customer support would accept the claim.
@topherluvstech
Unfortunately, sir, the Nexus One has factory equipped altitude measuring system; today most of smartphones are shipped with integral NAVSTAR GPS receiver. A GPS receiver can continuously track its 3-dimensional position in 20m accuracy anywhere below 60,000ft AGL(altitude limited by CoCom regulations).
Still to it's credit the phone is just about as useful(or useless!) as it was before it took that wonderful journey!!!
@hell hound
LOL, U MAD iSheep?
That is a sight of an Android phone I really enjoy. Engadget please post more.
@magadget "That is a sight of an Android phone I really enjoy. Engadget please post more."
Yup bring it on!!
@magadget
Levels of iDiot butthurt astronomical in this sector.
@GreatLoner STFU android fanboy
looks the same as the iphone 4 that fell from arms height from launchday
@davebu3
I've dropped mine a fair amount. No scratches/cracks. I really hope no smartphone cracks as easily as those guys said the iphone 4 does.
@davebu3 Ya for a fanboi it does doesn't it?? Put your spectacles on nerdboy!!!
@hell hound never really liked the iPhone, it was overhyped and didn't do as much as any other smartphone. i had all the same features 6 months before it or longer sometimes. when the iPhone4 specs started leaking I was actually intrigued, it looked like it was going to be a good phone for once. I didn't instantly dismiss it, but it was a huge disappointment imo. Multitasking is a joke and you drop calls if you hold it with your left hand, which I do. Its only actual advantage is screen resolution, which with my EVO i prefer the screen real estate. I could go on for days on why android is actually more user friendly too.
Lucky phone