NASA has sent three Google Nexus One, Android Smartphones in orbit around the Earth so that they can become “low-cost” satellites.
NASA has used the launcher Antares of Orbital Sciences Corp. to launch these low cost satellites.
The goal of NASA is to determine whether an everyday object can be used as a low cost satellite to observe our planet. Several receiving ground stations are present on the ground to regularly update the state of operation of the equipment. It is expected that Smartphone satellites will remain in orbit for two weeks.
The pictures of the earth taken by these satellites will then be sent to earth. NASA says this as it will publish photographs on the site phonesat.org . Nasa has slightly modified Nexus phones for the operation. They have added a lithium-ion battery and an external radio transmitter that is powerful enough to send data packets from space. Finally, the ability of these phones to send or receive calls has been disabled.