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SMS 4x More Expensive Than Data From Hubble

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the and-much-less-space-porn dept.

paradoxSpirit writes "Physorg has a paper comparing the cost of text messaging versus the cost of getting data from Hubble Space Telescope. From the article: 'The maximum size for a text message is 160 characters, which takes 140 bytes because there are only 7 bits per character in the text messaging system, and we assume the average price for a text message is 5p. There are 1,048,576 bytes in a megabyte, so that's 1 million/140 = 7490 text messages to transmit one megabyte. At 5p each, that's £374.49 [$732.95] per MB — or about 4.4 times more expensive than the 'most pessimistic' estimate for Hubble Space Telescope transmission costs." "Hubble is by no means a cheap mission — but the mobile phone text costs were pretty astronomical!""

3 of 410 comments (clear)

  1. ET by Davemania · · Score: 5, Funny

    No Wonder ET wants to call home

  2. Re:Math is HARD by LMacG · · Score: 5, Funny

    > Did you include your name and the class number in the word count for your papers in college?

    Hell yes! Month day and year, too.

    --
    Slightly disreputable, albeit gregarious
  3. Re:Math is HARD by __aaxwdb6741 · · Score: 5, Funny

    You, sir, must have a degree in advanced compression algorithms.