Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

NASA to use consumer Android smartphones in new satellites

nasa.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 107 posts

Re: NASA to use consumer Android smartphones in new satellites

#51

Post by natep »

abraham wrote: post #20
pfedor wrote: post #11

Why is it important to make satellites which are cheap to build? Isn't the total cost dominated by the cost of bringing it to orbit anyway?

It would also be about size. If they can fit 10 satellites in the space used by a typical one it would make launch a lot more cost-effective.

Sorry if I'm being too nitpicky here, but NASA isn't actually innovating on size, here. They're putting everything in the standard 10cm^3 cubesat envelope. And they can fit a whole lot more than 10 satellites in the mass+volume of a typical one. And they can basically stow away on a rocket whose primary mission is one of those larger satellites.

Edit: For innovation on size, check out KickSat

Re: NASA to use consumer Android smartphones in new satellites

#54

Post by StuieK »

tomjakubowski wrote: post #46
georgemcbay wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've got nothing to do with this project and only know what I read in the linked article but the seemingly obvious reason they'd use Android phones, especially Nexus phones, is that they run on a nearly fully open source stack (minus some binary drivers), so you can go as deep into the internals as you want without resorting to jailbreaking and/or a lot of reverse engineering.

Wouldn't you still need to root the phone? The stack is definitely more open than on iOS though.

Yeah we do have to root the phones but given the opensource aspirations of the project itself, Android was the most suitable.

Re: NASA to use consumer Android smartphones in new satellites

#55

Post by JosephRedfern »

wtracy wrote: post #44
digikata wrote: post #2

I wonder how they address radiation hardening and other space specific environmental drivers in this hardware.

Is radiation hardening really that important when you're still this side of the Van Allen belt? My understanding is that it's not, but IANARS.

Yes, it is. http://www.solarstorms.org/SEUavionics.pdf

Re: NASA to use consumer Android smartphones in new satellites

#58

Post by emiliobumachar »

wtracy wrote: post #44
digikata wrote: post #2

I wonder how they address radiation hardening and other space specific environmental drivers in this hardware.

Is radiation hardening really that important when you're still this side of the Van Allen belt? My understanding is that it's not, but IANARS.

Even airliners start having issues at 30000 ft.

Re: NASA to use consumer Android smartphones in new satellites

#59

Post by ZoFreX »

pfedor wrote: post #11

Why is it important to make satellites which are cheap to build? Isn't the total cost dominated by the cost of bringing it to orbit anyway?

They are tiny as well, so in one launch you could put a LOT of them up there! For some kinds of operations, it's better to aim for 95% reliability and put quite a few in orbit, than to go to the expense of 99% reliability.

Re: NASA to use consumer Android smartphones in new satellites

#60

Post by nedwin »

skeletonjelly wrote: post #56
option_greek wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not unless the satellites are rounded of course :)

They'll be bared from entering into a rounded orbit.

You jest but a Boeing patent on a specific satellite manuever had the effect of decommissioning a satellite.

http://www.google.com/patents?vid=6116545

Post reply on HN