NASA recently carried out an operation named “NexusOne PhoneSat” which sent a Nexus One into the stratosphere. The goal of the experiment was to test the phone’s resilience to G-forces for the purpose of creating smaller satellites. The cellphone was strapped at the back of a rocket and sent 28,000 feet into the stratosphere; the crude Myth-buster way. The N1s shot a video of the complete journey going up to 28,000 feet in the sky. This experiment team included two Google employees in addition to some people from NASA.
Thomas Atchison, chairman of the Mavericks Foundation which launched the rocket said,
The purpose of flying the Nexus One is to find a low-cost satellite solution. The radio, processing power, sensors and cameras in smartphones potentially have the same capability as those in satellites. The idea is to drive down satellite cost by using off-the-shelf products and components. Today’s satellites are the size of Greyhound buses, but I believe they are going to get smaller and more frequently deployed. This is a first-step effort.
NASA actually sent two phones into the stratosphere. However, one of them crash-landed on the way back. The maximum speed attained by the safe phone was 2.4 Mach, which stands at about 1,800 MPH. The return speed of the rocket was measured accurately using the phone’s accelerometer. NASA will conduct more research on this.
See this video for a view of a space ride on a Nexus One.