Phones in space

[thinfourth2]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-1225...

Now which forum should this go in, gadgets, travel, or planes ?

Anyway some boffins are going to use a mobile phone to run a satelite.

Who say the UK is entirely full of thickies

[FourWheelDrift]

Why are they concerned about it working or not? There's plenty of electronics working in space and plenty of satellite phones down here connecting to satellites up there.

[zcacogp]

Heard this one the news this morning. It sounds more like a publicity stunt than an 'experiment'; the capabilities of mobiles are well known and the technology in them is not new. The article was unclear as to whether the 'experiment' was to see whether the 'phone is capable of controlling a satellite (easy to tell as the computation capability required and provided are both known), or of withstanding the test of being in space.

I'd be very doubtful whether firing one into space (casing and all) will tell them anything they don't already know. More likely just to prove that the average brit is incapable of doing anything unless they've got their mobile with them.

I call bks to the whole thing.


Oli.

[twister]

FourWheelDrift said:

There's plenty of electronics working in space

There's plenty of electronics built using space-certified components working in space. Your average phone OTOH isn't likely to even be using milspec hardware, let alone the rad-hardened stuff required for space applications...

[Fatman2]

^^ and a lot less complex too.

I've only worked on the mechanical/structural side of space craft but in general space stuff isn't particularly complex as the tech has to be reliable and capable of operating, fuss free, for 15 years. By contrast mobile phones are very 'cutting edge'.

I think it'd be an interesting experiment but it'll be a long time before this kind of tech will be used in space 'proper'.

Edited by Fatman2 on Monday 24th January 12:39