Android In Space: STRaND-1 Satellite To Activate Nexus One

An anonymous reader writes "In as little as a few days, the British-made Surrey Training, Research, and Nanosatellite Demonstrator (STRaND-1) satellite will begin transitioning its key systems over to a completely stock Android Nexus One smartphone that's been bolted to the bottom of it. The mission is designed to test the endurance of off-the-shelf consumer hardware, and to validate Android as a viable platform for controlling low-cost spacecraft. STRaND-1 managed to beat NASA's own 'PhoneSat' mission to the punch, which will see a Nexus One and Nexus S launched into space aboard the April test flight of the Orbital Sciences Antares commercial launch vehicle, the prime competitor to SpaceX's Falcon 9."

Comments

Que random jokes

[Bobfrankly1]

I'd hate to pay the roaming charges on this.

It's stuck with a 2 year contract

At least it doesn't have to interface with iTunes

WHO FORGOT TO ADD TETHERING TO THE PLAN!?!

etc, etc, etc

Re:Que random jokes

[swanzilla]

Don't forget the N900 crowd...someone was probably controlling low-cost spacecraft in 2009.

Re:Que random jokes

[wonkey_monkey]

Ees no rat. Ees hamster!

Wow

[P-niiice]

This is so ridiculously cool. I'd never have imagined that cellphones would even be considered for such a thing.

Sort of pointless

[93 Escort Wagon]

Even in a "low-cost spacecraft" the cost of a consumer OS would be a trivial part of the budget - the difference between Android costing nothing versus the cost of stock Windows, iOS/OS X or Blackberry isn't particularly meaningful.

Off-the-shelf hardware, though - that would be a bigger deal. It's doomed to failure, but if somehow it could work that would be huge.

Re:Sort of pointless

[AikonMGB]

Off-the-shelf hardware, though - that would be a bigger deal. It's doomed to failure, but if somehow it could work that would be huge.

Why do you say that? We use COTS hardware pretty much everywhere in our missions. It turns out that the radiation environment isn't really that terrible if you are below the Van Allen belts. Why pay through the nose, both in terms of dollars and in terms of horrendous lead times, for space-qualified parts when commercial, industrial, and automotive parts work just fine?

Re:Sort of pointless

[alen]

you can customize android for your environment. download it from AOSP and add any drivers you need, etc

iOS, Win Phone and others are products you buy as is and use as is. most you can do with iOS is buy the enterprise software license to load your own apps outside the app store

Re:Sort of pointless

[PoolOfThought]

Exactly! The OS of a smart thermostat (5-10 years ago) might be good enough to control a "lowcost space craft". Can this OS context switch? Yes. Can it handle IO to different channels? Yes. Will it stay up and running assuming no one does something stupid and crashes it? Yes! Woo hoo we have a winner for an OS.

The hardware is the key. If the hardware can survive space and operate as expected then you've got something. Even if it doesn't operate as expected, but it does operate consistently you MIGHT be able to work with that. If the hardware works and the OS quits just because it's in space then the OS probably isn't fit for operation anywhere.

Re:Sort of pointless

[h4rr4r]

The cost is not the issue.

With android modifying the OS is possible and since it runs linux very well known by the community at large. You can build your own custom version of android and boot that. This is not so with the other options you mention. Using a smartphone is likely cheaper than other off the shelf options since they are sold in such high numbers.

The real cost they are controlling for is mass. Getting that mass to orbit is the most expensive part of this whole thing.

Re:Sort of pointless

[squiggleslash]

But if it doesn't need a battery what's the advantage of this anyway? I mean, the Nexus seems to have a lot of crap (screen, speakers, cameras - well, I guess they may be useful, GSM/UMTS radio, bluetooth radio, Wi-fi radio, GPS, and probably a crapload more I can't think of at the moment) that seems completely useless for a device intended to control a satellite, while being missing almost everything needed aside from the CPU, memory, and storage.

You know, if only there was some kind of cheap computing device, much much cheaper than a smartphone, that didn't have all that unncessary stuff, maybe something with slightly more in the way of IO features, albeit not enough for this application, maybe with a name that's the combination of a fruit and a mathematical symbol and constant so you know it's going to be high quality?

Re:Sort of pointless

[AikonMGB]

Heh.. Proof right there that you're not affiliated with a US government agency.

That's right, I'm not, and neither are the developers of STRaND-1. I'm not even American. The world is a big place, not all of it is funded by the US government.

Re:Sort of pointless

[Bill_the_Engineer]

The article mentions that the battery is still installed in the phone. Keep in mind that this is a cubesat and things like temperature control, single event upsets, and outgassing are usually not considered mission critical since these are designed to be short lived amateur satellites in LEO (these sometimes live longer than planned, just no extra expense was made to insure longevity). This is to keep costs low while maintaining the programs original intent of education.

has some advantages

[Chirs]

Running Android gets you a full-fledged OS that is also designed for low power consumption--but it's also open-source allowing for customization.

Re:Why not use Raspberry Pi? UK innovation.

[joh]

This mission was fixed years ago, there was no Raspberry Pi back then.

I love this part especially:

[QilessQi]

"The onboard computer will monitor the temperature of the phone battery. If it sees it is getting too cold, it will trigger a processor intensive program to run on the mobile phone, which will warm it up."

Next time I'm out on a winter day, I'll just turn on my Live Wallpaper with Conway's Life running on an infinite grid. Instant pocket hard-warmer!

Re:I love this part especially:

[DigiShaman]

Be careful! Some phones have been documented to burn a hole through the pocket. Literally. Though if I had to guess, the owners of those phones were probably using an aftermarket pirated battery of dubious quality.

Re:Why not use Raspberry Pi? UK innovation.

[Eggbloke]

I was at a talk from one of these guys once and from what I remember he said that the amount of things you get with a phone make it attractive. They have a camera, temperature sensor and compass straight off as well as probably more stuff. A Raspberry Pi probably would be better with some more work though.

Go Android!

[Graydyn Young]

Allow me to be the first Android fanboy to say, "Suck it, IOS fanboys!"