Pictures that are truly out of this world: Three smartphones sent into orbit by NASA beam back clear images of Earth

09:13 • 06.05.13
Science/tech

These images of Earth were reconstructed from photos taken by three smartphones sent into orbit, or 'PhoneSats'.

 

The three phones were launched into space on April 21 aboard the Antares rocket from Flight Facility and ended a successful mission on April 27, The daily Mail reports.

 

Nasa's goal was to determine whether or not a consumer-grade smartphone can be used as the main flight avionics for a satellite in space.


While they were in orbit, the PhoneSats used their cameras to take pictures of earth and transmitted these 'image-data packets' to different stations on the ground. Every packet held a small piece of the big picture.

 

The PhoneSat Team and multiple amateur radio operators around the world then pieced together the photographs from these data packets.


Bruce Yost, the program manager for NASA’s Small Satellite Technology Program, said: 'During the short time the spacecrafts were in orbit, we were able to demonstrate the smartphones’ ability to act as satellites in the space environment.
'The PhoneSat project also provided an opportunity for NASA to collaborate with its space enthusiasts.

 

'Amateur radio operators from every continent but Antarctica contributed in capturing the data packets we needed to piece together the smartphones’ image of Earth from space.'

 

NASA called the successful collection of images from the amateur radio stations an example of Citizen Science, 72 hours into the mission NASA said it received over 300 data packets from stations around the globe.

 

The mission concluded on April 27 with the PhoneSats - called Alexander, Graham and Bell - triumphantly burning up upon re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.

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