NASA’s nanosatellite “PhoneSat program”
The PhoneSats employ an off-the-shelf commercial smartphone as the control system for the satellite and used a UHF radio beacon to transmit data and images to the ground. The technology objective was to demonstrate the application of consumer electronics as the basis of an extremely low-cost satellite bus. Each satellite is a 10 centimeter cube with a mass of about 1 kilogram. Transmissions from all three satellites were received at multiple sites soon after launch indicating that they were all functioning properly. As expected, the satellite orbits naturally decayed after about one week … . Two of the PhoneSats have standard smartphone cameras and these were used to take images of the Earth from space. The images were transmitted incrementally by the tiny satellites in small data packets which were received at tracking stations and by amateur radio operators around the world. The PhoneSat team at the NASA Ames Research Center used the data packets to stitch together complete images. Another experiment on one of the satellites to send signals via an Iridium satellite link was also successful. The Ames Research Center supported this project since its inception several years ago and the Small Spacecraft Technology Program has sponsored much of its development and launch. continue here
source : NASA
