I thought it was cool that a couple of guys from China got their Nokia C7 to control a BMW car, but I think these UK scientists have trumped them slightly with their planned use of a mobile phone to control a satellite in orbital space.
The team is part of SSTL (Surrey Satellite Technology Limited) and the Surrey Space Centre in Guildford. They are keen to test how a modern day phone will cope in the harshest environment known to man or women, i.e. space.
As of yet they have not chosen their phone of choice, but we do know it will be based on the Android operating system and will cost around the $450 mark. Already the OS has proven its worth as scientists last year managed to send a Google Nexus S phone to an altitude of 18km (60,000ft) attached to a special balloon.
The main aim for the project will be first to see if the mobile phone can withstand the elements of space, then if it does they want to use it to control a 30cm-long satellite so it can take pictures of the Earth when the project goes live later this year.
Technically the phone will not be modified in any way, but due to the extreme temperature changes in orbital space, the phone will be placed inside the satellite casing to give it some protection and a hole will be cut into the side casing to allow the phone’s camera to stick out and capture images.
Another camera will be mounted on the satellite so they can see the phones own screen to control it (advanced GPS and booster technology will then be used to manoeuvre the satellite) and images will be beamed back to earth via the satellite’s own radio link.
Read more at BBC